
THE 

t 




■■a 









kCKIMN*' 



.«c::jk' 




EJwIZABETH HALE GILMAN 



THE CHILDREN'S LIBRARY 
OF WORK AND PLAY 

Caepentby and Woodwork 
By Edwin W. Foster 

Electricity and Its Everyday Uses 
By John F. Woodhull, Ph.D. 

Gardening and Farming 

By Ellen Eddy Shaw 

Home Decoration 

By Charles FrankUn Warner, Sc.D. 

Housekeeping 

By Elizabeth Hale Gilman. 

Mechanics, Indoors and Out 
By Fred T. Hodgson, 

Needlecraft 

By Effie Archer Archer 

Outdoor Sports, and Games 

By Claude H. Miller, Ph.B. 

Outdoor Work 

By Mary Rogers Miller 

Working in Metals 

By Charles Conrad SleffeL 





^ . .^J^ 1 


' *■ ■■ ■■■/ -^SK' * ■ 

4 

i 

1| 1i ;,.. ;i 


r 


'^P -11 i 


1 '.^^^^B 




-M ^■*' 


-4p-^- %*, 



Photograph by Helen \V. Cooke 

Have You a Play-House ? 




\^ 



4, 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLtTDING THAT OF TRANSLATION 
INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN 



COPYRIGHT, 1 91 1, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 






" Looh not thou down, hut up I 
To uses of a cup, 
The festal board, lamp's flash and 

trumpet's peal. 
The new wine's foaming flow. 

The Master's lips a-glow ! 
Thou, Heaven's consummate cup, what 

need'st thou with earth's wheel ? " 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Pakt I. The Play House ... 1 

Part II. Learning and Helping . . 41 

Part III. My Heritage .... 61 

CHAPTEK 

I. My Heritage 63 

II. The Plan 69 

III. The Accounts 87 

IV. The Schedule 101 

V. Possessions . . . . .115 

VI. Care of Fittings and Furniture . 121 

VII. Upstairs Work 146 

VIII. Dining-room and Pantry Work . . 160 

IX. The Kitchen 188 

X. The Cellar, Fires, Plumbing, etc. . 208 

XI. Menus and Marketing . . . 244 

XII. Cooking 274 

XIII. Washing and Ironing . . . 312 



VIU 



CONTENTS 



XIV. House Cleaning 

XV. Emergencies . 

XVI. Servants . 

XVII. Martha . 

XVIII. The Inspiration 



PAGE 

337 
353 

370 

382 
388 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Have You a Playhouse ? ...... Frontispiece '-^ 

FACING PAGE 

A Playhouse Somebody Else Has Made 14 ^^ 

Tidying 52i^ 

The Account Book 90 t^ 

The Broom Closet 140 i^ 

Straight and Smooth * . 150 " 

Air, Sun, and Water • * . . . 156 -'' 

Order and Daintiness 164 

Cooking 274 



PART I 
THE PLAY-HOUSE 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 

Monday, I wash my dollies' clotJies, 

And Tuesday, smoothly press them. 
Wednesday, I mend their little hose. 

And Thursday, neatly dress them. 
Friday, I play they're very ill, 

Saturday, something or other. 
Sunday, I say, "Lie still, 

I'm going to church with mother." 

WHEN I was walking in a garden the other 
day, I saw a play-house. And what do 
you suppose it was? A big tree with 
humpy roots which stuck out of the ground, and 
low branches which nearly touched the grass at the 
ends. You could not stand up straight in the house 
if you were more than three feet tall, but as the 
people who lived in the house were only about two 
feet eleven inches, they did not mind that. 

You should have seen the china-closet. It was 
under a bent root, and all the dishes were white 
with violet markings. One might have thought they 
were big and little and middling-sized clam-shells, 
if one had not seen them in a china-closet. 

3 



4 HOUSEKEEPING 

There was a bedroom between two big roots. A 
doll was taking a nap there, not on a pine-pillow, 
but on a whole bed of pleasant-smelling pine needles 
which had dropped off a tree in the neighbourhood. 
The mistress of the house was in the kitchen cooking, 
and the kitchen, of course, was where the sun came 
through a break in the branches. One must have a 
patch of sun in a kitchen, for how can you bake 
without it.P When I went into this kitchen, there 
was a cake baking, with an ornament on the top that 
looked quite like an acorn. 

I was invited to stay for lunch, and I will tell you 
what we had: First, there were brown-bread cut- 
lets, and smooth white stone potatoes, and a wonder- 
ful salad made of maple leaves and pepper-grass. 
Then for dessert we had the cake I had seen baking, 
and milk. The cake had a brown layer made from 
the garden beds and a yellow layer made from the 
path, and was iced with white sand. You will guess 
that the brown bread cutlets and the milk were 
what people getting up plays call "practicable," 
which is just a grown-up word for "really and 
truly." 

A tree is one of the nicest play-houses a person 
can have. But suppose it is a rainy day! We will 
play it is a rainy day, and we will go and go until 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 5 

we get to a house with a steep roof. And we will 
go in, and go upstairs, and then upstairs again until 
we get to a garret, where we can see the rafters 
sloping to the ridge over our heads, and the inside 
of the shingles. On the floor are trunks and boxes 
and barrels, and all sorts of things are hanging from 
the rafters. Sometimes we hear the pigeons running 
on the outsides of the shingles and cooing under the 
eaves. It is a lonely sound. It is rather dark, too, 
but we are brave, and we get past two saddles, and a 
row of white petticoats, and a dim place where there 
are a lot of old books with strange dark pictures in 
them, which one likes to be sure are shut in tight. 
At last we get round a corner and find a gable with 
a pointed window, and there is a play-house where 
a little girl and eight dolls live. There are four 
rooms in the play-house, though if you are not think- 
ing, you may very likely walk right through the 
walls and not know it. On one side of the window 
is a bedroom, and on the other side is the kitchen. 
The dining room and the living room are in the 
corners nearest the rest of the garret. 

The little girl's big sister put up some pictures 
on the sloping wooden walls to suit each room. 
One of them is very useful when the little girl is 
deciding what to play. It is seven little pictures on 



6 HOUSEKEEPING 

a card with verses to explain them. You can read 
the verses at the beginning of this chapter; I am 
sorry the pictures are not there, too. 

This little girl likes especially to play "Monday, 
I wash my dollies' clothes" — because she has a tub 
and a washboard, and a wringer that will really 
let buttons through, and clothespins and a clothes- 
horse, and all the garret to put up lines in. House- 
work, you know, is so much more fun if you have 
the right things to do it with. 

"Tuesday, I neatly press them," is a good day, 
too, but "Wednesday, I mend their little hose," is 
not. One cannot sit still and make believe sew, 
for many minutes. When mother was told about 
this trouble, she looked at the pictures and said, 
"Why, there's no sweeping day! As soon as the 
stockings are mended on Wednesday, you had better 
sweep, and tidy things up a little." Mother often 
wants things "tidied up" when it isn't in the game. 
She says, she does not keep her little girl's hat on 
the dining table, nor leave her bed unmade, and she 
cannot have the dolls brought up that way either. 

The Friday game is one of the best. The two 
dolls that have night dresses are most often sick. 
Of course, it is a great care to have a doll sick, but 
it does make a great many interesting things to do. 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 7 

She may need cold-water cloths, or a hot-water 
bottle, or a poultice, and there is always medicine 
to give and meals to serve on a tray. Then the bed 
should be made over often. The little girl who lives 
in this play-house likes to have her dolls ill when she 
has company, because then there is some one to 
be the doctor. 

"Saturday something or other," usually means 
cooking, and that, too, is a favourite game for com- 
pany. Sometimes the little girl goes down into the 
"really and truly" kitchen to market, or sometimes 
mother sends up a little cake baked in a doll's pan. 
That makes a very grand occasion. The table must 
be laid with all the dishes, and napkins if possible, 
when there is a cake from the big kitchen. 

A great many things can happen in a garret play- 
house, besides housekeeping. Sometimes it is so 
still up there, that one knows one must be in a deep 
forest, or out on the plains; and, of course, in that 
case, the cooking or nursing may be interrupted by 
a band of robbers, or an attack from Indians, or one 
may have a visit from an escaping prisoner, and 
besides, there are always long, dangerous journeys 
to take through the garret. In fact, every time one 
hears a new story, something unusual is likely to 
happen in the play-house. 



8 HOUSEKEEPING 

Have you a play-house ? I hope you have. Now- 
adays, when rents are so high, and when many 
people live in flats and apartments, it is often hard 
to get a play-house, but it can usually be managed 
in some way. If we have a nursery or a play-room 
all our own, then it is easy to have a play-house. 
We only have to get mother, or nurse to give us a 
corner to fix as we like, and to advise us about sort- 
ing things. Perhaps they will let us make the whole 
room into a play-house, but we really can keep house 
nicely in a much smaller space than that. The 
great point is to get the things together which belong 
together. If the bedroom things stand together, 
that is all we need to have a bedroom, and if the 
kitchen things are together, there is the kitchen. If 
we have a dining table, why, there is the dining room, 
and our living room can be anywhere where mother 
likes us to have most of the chairs. 

But even if we have not a play-room we can still 
have a house. I know some clever dolls and their 
mother who keep house in the cupboard part of 
an old-fashioned washstand. The way they man- 
age is to make the cupboard any room they wish to 
use. Monday morning it is a laundry, and every 
night it is a bedroom, and if they give a luncheon 
it is a dining room, and Saturday it is a kitchen. 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 9 

They keep the furniture which does not suit the 
room they are using in the drawer of the washstand 
which is over their heads. 

I know another family who live under a dressing 
table. The legs of the table show where the 
corners of their house are, and they change the 
room into anything they need it for, as the other 
people do. 

One little girl I know, whose name is Esther, 
lives in a flat and has only a bureau drawer for her 
housekeeping things. This is quite hard, for it 
means so much packing and unpacking, and parting 
with things she would like to keep when the drawer 
gets too full. She has to take her two dolls and a 
few things she thinks they will need into the parlour 
or the bedroom and play house there. In the bed- 
room, she plays it is night, because it is always nearly 
dark in there. Her mother lets her play with her 
big grown-up beds and chairs and stoves and irons. 
If she did not, Esther would have a hard time keeping 
house for her dolls. 

But it is not always the people who live in flats 
who have not room for their things, is it ? Some- 
times after Christmas, or a birthday, one just feels 
as if one were trying to keep house in a toy shop. 
The best cure for this trouble is to give things away. 



10 HOUSEKEEPING 

Because — it is dreadful to think about — there are 
people who have no dolls : and there are people who 
have not so much as a tin cup to begin housekeeping 
with; and there are little girls who have real babies 
to look after, and real meals to cook who would just 
dearly love to have the games and toys that have to 
be packed away in closets and drawers because their 
owners have so many other things. 

It is easy to say, give things away, but, my stars! 
how hard it is to decide which to give. One just 
can't give away the new things, and one feels so 
fond of the old ones, when one gets them out and 
looks at them. The only way to part with them 
is to think of Saint Martin cutting his cloak in two 
for the beggar, or something inspiring like that. 
Even then one feels a little dreary. 

Once there was a little girl whose family moved 
into a smaller house. There was not room in her 
new play-house for the many things she had in her 
old one. Some of them had to be given away. 
One decision was so hard to make that she remem- 
bered about it after she was a grown-up woman. 
There was a little green wagon with yellow wheels, 
which she had always had, and which her older 
sisters had played with before she was born, and 
there was a little orange-coloured cart with four red 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 11 

wheels, which her father had brought out from town, 
a week or two before, filled with soap. 

Two wagons were too many for the new play- 
house, and mother said keep the green one, because 
the other was only an "advertisement"; and the 
older sisters said keep the green one, because it was 
better and they had played with it; and father just 
smiled and said, "You must decide.'* 

When no one was looking, the little girl took the 
little orange-coloured wagon with four red wheels, 
and the big letters round the outside, which made 
it an "advertisement," and put it in the box mother 
was packing for some other children, and it hurt so 
to do it that she could not quite help crying. 

Some of us are troubled more with having too 
few things than too many, are we not ? We can 
make a game of getting out of this trouble. We must 
all be discoverers and inventors, and if there is 
something needed in the play-house, we must keep 
our eyes wide open to see what else will do or what 
we can find to make into the thing we want. It 
spoils the hunt, and the surprise, if some one else 
tells you what to do, but one or two little things will 
show what the game is like. For instance, if it is a 
bed you need, try a strong pasteboard box, not very 
deep. If you mind its having no legs, then you must 



12 HOUSEKEEPING 

go on a journey and have it a berth on a car or a 
ship. 

A cigar-box makes a good trunk for a small doll, 
especially the boxes which have trays in them. A 
doll with a cigar-box trunk will never have moths 
in her clothes. 

Paper napkins are useful for dolls' tablecloths, 
and for napkins when they are cut into small squares. 
They will even do for sheets, if mother cannot spare 
us white "pieces" that are big enough. A ban- 
danna handkerchief, or a scrap of bright calico, 
makes a good bedquilt. 

Shells we have brought home from a day at the 
beach are convenient for dishes. Radiators are 
splendid stoves. And did you ever find out how 
much closet room there is under a bed ? With the 
help of a few pins, one can hang all the dolls' clothes 
from the springs, and shut them in with the counter- 
pane, if it happens to be a long one. But if mother 
does not want you to do this, you mustn't. 

You will be able to make a great many discoveries 
and inventions, if you think what you want, and then 
think what to make it out of. But the best and 
most wonderful thing about a play-house is, that if 
we have to, we can make one anywhere, or out of 
anything. Once, two little girls wrote home about 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 13 

a visit they had paid, "We had two rag dolls and we 
played house." Even one little girl, without so 
much as a rag doll, can have a play-house. She has 
only to imagine y that is, pretend, and there it is — 
with rooms, and staircases, and people, and every- 
thing needful. It can be big or little; and in the 
country or in the city. She can do the washing, or 
give a dinner party; take care of a sick doll, or work 
in the garden, just as she pleases. It is easier and 
happier to play with the pleasant things people 
give us, and to be able to see and touch most of the 
things in our play-houses, but we always want some 
imagined things, too. And if it should happen 
that we are in a place where we "have nothing to 
play with," then we can imagine and pretend, and 
go and play in the play-house we always have with 
us. In a second, we can build it into a wigwam, 
or a palace, or a cave, or a great castle, or it can be 
just the house we live in when we are at home. 

Sometimes, when we have played a good while 
in the play-house, we feel tired, and if it isn't a nap 
we want, perhaps it is that we would like to go and 
play in a play-house somebody else has made. We 
need not take a journey to do this, we only need 
some one to tell us a story, or a story-book to read 



14 HOUSEKEEPING 

to ourselves. We might choose to read " Cinderella," 
for that is the princess of housekeeping stories, 
or it may be that we will find one we like, if we go 
on reading this book. 

IRISH STEW 

Do you ever have Irish Stew for luncheon ? Most 
Irish Stews are a good deal alike, but this is the 
story of one that was different. 

Once upon a time there was an Irishman who 
lived in a little two-roomed hut on the edge of a bog. 
All day, he cut peats in the bog, for that is the way 
he made his living. It was not a very good living; 
in fact, he was very poor indeed. At night, when 
he came back to the hut, there were often only a 
few potatoes for supper, which he boiled in a pot 
over the fire. His old father had died a few 
years before, and that was the reason he lived 
alone. 

One chilly, foggy night, the Irishman had come 
home late through the wet and the dark, and lighted 
his fire. There was very little for supper, and he 
had not had a chance to cook that, when Thump! 
Thump! came a knock on the door. He was ever 
so frightened, but he thought it would be better to 




Phot 'graph by Helen W. Cooke 



A Play-house Somebody Else Has Made 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 15 

open the door than have it thumped in. When 
he did open it — Preserve us ! there were five big 
robbers with knives, and pistols, and high boots 
and fierce, bright eyes. They all crowded into the 
little hut, and threw more peat on the fire and 
demanded supper. The Irishman apologized, and 
said he had only potatoes. The robbers said they 
had to have something better than that, and all five 
of them laid their five big knives on the table with a 
look which meant, "Supper or your life!" 

The Irishman went into the other little room and 
sat down on a chest to think. There was nothing 
in the room but the chest, and nothing in the chest 
but a few old clothes, and the more he tried to think, 
the less he was able to do it. At last, for no reason 
at all, he opened the chest. In it lay an old 
cloak, which his father had worn forty years and 
more. 

No sooner had he seen it, than he went back to 
the room where the robbers were, and they saw him 
take the pot into the little room, and very soon come 
back and put all the potatoes into it and some water, 
and hang it over the fire, which was now so hot and 
bright that the pot soon began to boil. It simmered, 
and bubbled and steamed and soon the robbers 
began to sniff their supper. It did not smell like 



16 HOUSEKEEPING 

anything they had ever had before, but was not bad 
for a cold, foggy night. Pretty soon the Irishman 
set the pot on the table, and the robbers ate heartily. 
The Irishman was busy arranging something near 
the door. All of a sudden, one robber choked. He 
choked, and choked, and two others beat him on 
the back. He coughed and coughed, and then, 
something flew out of his mouth. It was a button. 
The Irishman turned up his eyes to the roof and 
said, "Ah me, that is the last of a good old cloak." 
Before the robbers could move, he had opened the 
door and disappeared into the fog. 

KING ALFRED AND THE CAKES 

A good while ago there was a king of England 
named Alfred. He was a great and good king, 
but in spite of this, he had many enemies, who tried 
to take his kingdom away from him. Once, after 
a battle, the country was so overrun with his ene- 
mies, that he had to separate from his followers 
and go away in disguise. You would never have 
guessed he was a king when he started, and when, 
after he had wandered a few days in the forest, he 
came to a cowherd's hut, he looked like a hungry, 
ragged beggar. The cowherd and his wife gave 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 17 

him supper, and let him stay all night, and gave 
him some breakfast next morning. After breakfast, 
he sat for a long time looking into the fire, thinking 
of his kingdom, and of the dangers and sorrows of 
his people. The cowherd's wife was a hard-working 
woman, and it provoked her to see a great big man 
dreaming over the fire all the morning. She said 
to herself, "If he has no work of his own to attend 
to, he shall just help with mine." She put some 
meal cakes on a board to bake before the fire, and 
told the King to watch them carefully while she went 
out to feed the pig. 

The King said he would watch them, but he kept 
on thinking about his army, and the heavy taxes, 
and by and by the woman came back. 

There was smoke in the room, but she could see 
that the stranger was still sitting beside the fire, 
and that her cakes were burned to cinders. My, 
my, but she was angry. She boxed her guest's ears 
soundly, little dreaming that she was laying hands 
on the Sacred Person of the King, and might be 
hanged for it. The King, however, took her blows 
and her scolding, for he was very sorry he had let 
the cakes burn. 

Afterward, when he had driven out his enemies 
and was at home again in his own castle he told what 



18 HOUSEKEEPING 

a scolding he had got for thinking about his troubles 
when he should have been baking the cakes. 

ROAST PIG 

Long ago, longer than you can even imagine, 
nobody in the world knew how to cook. People 
were not as dreadfully hungry on that account 
as you might think, because, you see, they ate their 
food uncooked. No one had ever cooked, and no 
one had ever thought of it; no one had ever eaten 
cooked food, and no one knew how pleasant it tasted. 

This is the story of the way a little Chinese boy 
found out how to roast pig. 

His name was Bo-bo and he had been left at home 
by his father, Ho-ti, to look after their hut, and their 
one big pig, and their nine little pigs. Bo-bo, was 
fond of playing with fire, and what did he do but set 
fire to some straw, and that set fire to the hut, and 
burned it down. A much more serious matter was 
that the one big pig and the nine little pigs were 
burned along with the hut. 

Bo -bo was dreadfully frightened when he saw 
what he had done. He knew his father would beat 
him, and he began to cry. He also poked round 
among the ruins of the hut, though he did not hope 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 19 

to find anything. As he was turning over the embers, 
he found one of the little burnt pigs, and tried to 
pull it out. It was very hot, and burnt his hands, 
and he did just what you or I would have done — 
put his burnt fingers in his mouth. 

The instant his hands reached his mouth, Bo-bo 
forgot all about being burned. He licked his fingers, 
but not because they hurt him. He did not know 
why he did lick them, but he kept on. Neither he 
nor any one else in the world had ever tasted such 
a wonderful taste. 

Pretty soon, it came to him that it was the pig 
which tasted so delicious, and no sooner had he 
thought this, than he sat down in the ruins of the 
hut and began to eat great pieces of the little burnt 
pig. While he was making the best meal he had 
ever had in his life, his father came home, and when 
he saw that the hut was burnt down and that his son 
was eating some horrible food that no one else had 
ever eaten before, he began to beat Bo-bo with the 
stick he had in his hand. But Bo-bo did not seem 
to feel it. He hunted in the ashes for another pig 
and thrust it into his father's hands. Then the 
same thing happened which had happened to him. 
The pig burned Ho-ti's fingers and he put them in 
his mouth, and after that he had no time to think 



20 HOUSEKEEPING 

of beating any one, but sat down with his son in the 
ashes and made a good dinner. 

From that time on, whenever they had little pigs, 
they burned down their hut to roast them. When 
the neighbours found it out, they thought it very 
wicked of Ho-ti and Bo-bo to eat burnt pig, but as 
soon as they were persuaded to taste it, they changed 
their minds, and then everybody was burning down 
his house in order to roast his pigs. After a 
long while, some one found out that one could cook 
without burning one's house down, which I am sure 
you will agree was a great discovery. 

— Some day, when you go to school, you will have 
this story given to you to read — for a lesson ! 

THE KING'S KITCHEN 

When King Arthur was King of England, a boy 
named Gareth, was growing up in a castle far away 
from Camelot, the King's city. But he had two 
brothers who were at Court, and who were Knights 
of the Order of the Round Table, and when they 
came home, now and then, Gareth asked them 
more questions than you could count about the 
King and his knights, and the Court, and tourna- 
ments, and battles. Every day, he rode and practised 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 21 

with lance and sword, and exercised in all ways 
that would make him strong and skilful with arms. 
And always he tried to be brave and to be gentle 
toward weak things and to tell the truth. And the 
reason for all this was that, more than anything 
else in the world, he longed to be in the service of 
the King, and to be a Knight of the Round Table. 

As Gareth grew older, and more and more worthy 
to be made a knight, his mother, Bellicent, sorrowed 
and grieved. Her husband was very, very old, and 
her two elder sons had gone away to the Court, and 
she could not bear to have Gareth leave her, for 
he was the youngest and last. Though she saw that 
his heart's desire was to be with the King, yet she 
felt as if her heart would break if he went. She tried 
to make him especially happy at home; she tried to 
persuade him that he was not skilful or brave enough 
to be a knight; she told him of dangers and wounds, 
and besought him not to go. Again and again he 
asked her permission to go away and earn his knight- 
hood; again and again she refused. 

One day when he had spoken so bravely and truly 
that she knew not how to resist him longer, the 
thought came to her to test his great desire to be with 
the King, and she said to him: '"If you desire so 
greatly to serve the King, give the proof of it which 



22 HOUSEKEEPING 

I shall ask of you. Go to the King and ask him to 
let you serve him in his kitchen for a year and a day, 
and tell no one your name and rank until the time 
is over." 

She thought he would refuse to do it, but he kissed 
and thanked her, and quickly made ready to go to 
Camelot. For he wanted to serve the King, and this 
was a way of doing it, though not the one he had 
hoped for. 

He journeyed a day and a night, and came to 
Camelot, the wonderful big city which he had never 
seen before. In the morning, the King sat in the 
Great Hall of his palace to hear the requests and 
troubles of his people. There Gareth came, and 
stood before him. And when he raised his eyes to 
the King's quiet face, and met his eyes, he loved 
him and longed more than ever to serve him. It 
was a little hard, when he was longing to be made 
a knight, and to be sent on an adventure, just to 
ask to be a kitchen-boy; but he did it, and the King 
granted his request. 

So joyous and strong was he when he went out 
from the presence of the King, that he felt nothing 
would ever be hard to do again. But there were 
things which were hard. The kitchen was a great 
stone room with an earth floor, and a fireplace at 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 23 

either end as big as a little room. When the great 
fires were lit it was mightily hot between, and there 
was smoke and hurry, and jostling of servants, and 
there were some bad-tempered people and a great 
deal of hard work. There were trenchers and 
platters to be scoured, and big iron pots to be 
lifted about and washed, and roasting meats to 
be watched and turned before the fires. The 
cooking tanned Gareth's face and hands as rid- 
ing in the hot sun had never done. When he could, 
he would run out into the courtyard, and play 
games with the other kitchen-boys, and when they 
were tired, they would sit against the wall and he 
would tell long tales he had read, and some that 
he made up, about knights and dragons and 
enchanted forests and robbers. The stories he loved 
best to tell, though, were stories of the King. 

Often these play-times were broken in upon by 
the Master of the Kitchens, who called them back 
to their tasks with no great gentleness. Especially 
was he a hard master to Gareth; and, strangely 
enough, this was because Gareth was willing and 
cheerful, for there are people with such crooked 
places in their minds that they cannot see a person 
working gladly at a hard task but they want nothing 
so much as to see if they cannot break their cheer- 



24 HOUSEKEEPING / 

fulness. And that was the sort of master Gareth 
found in the King's Kitchen. He missed his rides 
over the downs in the clear air, and the right to go 
and come as he pleased. But when things seemed 
hard he cast off the thought and laughed to himself, 
saying, "It is for the King." In a little while, too, 
he learned to take fault-finding, and, now and again, a 
blow, in quietness. And this, too, was for the King. 

As the days came and went, Bellicent, alone now 
with her old husband, thought of her son day and 
night; and the tasks that he must do and the dis- 
comforts he must suffer seemed to her a thousand 
times worse than he ever thought them. At last, 
when hardly a month of his trial had yet gone by, 
she could bear it no longer, but sent a messenger 
to the King to tell him the story, and to take to Gareth 
a horse and armour and all things that he would need 
when it should please the King to make him a 
knight. 

After the King had seen the messenger he sent 
for Gareth, and Gareth left his scouring and went 
gaily and eagerly to him. He was glad in his love 
for the King, and I think he may have felt that he 
had borne rather unusual things for his sake. As 
he came near, the King loved him for his youth and 
gaiety and faithfulness. But Gareth, looking up 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 25 

into the quiet, loving eyes that were fixed on him, 
knelt down at the King's feet and bowed his head, 
and knew that nothing he could do for the King 
would ever be too much. 

The King ended Gareth's kitchen service and made 
him a knight, and some day you will read other 
stories about him, for he fought many battles and 
loved a beautiful lady. 

And it seems likely that the King loved him all 
the more because he could cook and scour for his 
sake. 

BROTHER JUNIPER'S COOKING 

Have you heard stories about Saint Francis of 
Assisi.^ There are a great many, and people like 
to hear them over and over again. For, though 
Saint Francis lived most of his life in a little, far- 
away, country town in Italy, called Assisi, and 
though he died hundreds of years ago, yet every 
year many people go to see the place where he lived, 
and the church where he is buried, and many 
people in countries far away from Italy love him as 
well as they do their friends whom they can see 
and talk to. 

One of the stories about St. Francis tells of a flock 
of birds that came to listen to a sermon he preached 



26 HOUSEKEEPING 

to them, and another is about a wolf whom he per- 
suaded not to hurt people any more. The reason 
he could do these things, and the reason people who 
have never seen him love him very dearly is because 
he loved everything and everybody in the world, and 
God and our Lord Jesus more than all. 

No one was so dirty, or so sick, that he did not 
want to take care of him; no one was so cross, or 
so cruel, that he did not want to be kind to him. 

Every day he went about helping poor people, 
and sick people, and troubled people; and he taught 
them all to be sorry for the wrong things they had 
done, and to sing songs of joy because God loved 
them. 

After a little, a good many men began to help him 
do this. They gave everything they had to the poor, 
and never after that kept any money. They worked 
every day to get a little food, and the rest of the time 
they spent in helping and teaching people. St. 
Francis called them his "Little Brothers," not 
because they were small or young, but because he 
taught them to think themselves of no importance, 
and to think, if anybody scolded them or hurt them, 
that they deserved it and more too. 

One of these Little Brothers was named Brother 
Juniper. He was always thinking of ways to help 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 27 

people. One day, all the Brothers went out to work, 
and left Brother Juniper to take care of the little 
hut where they lived, and to get some food for them. 
When he set about this he began to think of the 
Brothers who usually did the cooking, and how much 
time they had to spend every day getting food ready 
for the others to eat. To be sure, they had but one 
good meal a day, yet even so the cooking of it took 
time the Brothers might otherwise have used for 
prayer, or tending the sick, or some other good work. 
As Brother Juniper was thinking of this, a plan 
popped into his head which made him very glad. 
He took two big baskets, and went off happily to 
several farmhouses in the neighbourhood, where 
the people were fond of the Little Brothers and 
liked to give them anything they needed. That 
day they gave Brother Juniper chickens and eggs 
and meat and salad and all sorts of vegetables, 
and they lent him some big iron pots. He took the 
baskets home heavy with food, and he came back 
and took the pots home. Then he made a big fire, 
and all the time he was happy and sang to himself, 
because he thought, "I will work hard to-day, and 
cook all this food, and then the Brothers won't 
have to think about cooking for a week or more." 
He hung the pots over the fire, and put into them all 



28 HOUSEKEEPING 

the food he had gathered without so much as taking 
the feathers off the chickens or the shells off the eggs, 
or stopping to see whether the vegetables were 
all just fit to eat or not. Then he filled the pots 
with water, and before long they began to boil. 
The fire was furiously hot. Brother Juniper could 
not get near enough to it to stir the pots. When he 
found this out, he took a board and tied it fast to 
himself, and, with that for a shield, he leaped to 
a pot and stirred it, and then leaped away again 
to cool himself; then he dashed at another and 
stirred that, and so on. 

By and by, the Brothers came back, and the 
Brother Guardian with them, and they all sat down 
to dinner. Brother Juniper poured out some of the 
stew from his pots and brought it to the table. He 
was hot and tired, but delighted, and he told the 
others what he had done, and that they need not do 
any more cooking for a long time. The Brothers 
looked at him, and looked at the stew, and looked 
at each other, but not a mouthful could they eat. 
Brother Juniper urged them to begin, and when they 
did not, wondered what could be the matter. He was 
not left long in doubt, for the Brother Guardian told 
him that the dinner was not fit for a pig to eat, and 
scolded him well for wasting so much good food. 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 29 

Brother Juniper listened and the gladness died 
out of him. He went and knelt at the Brother 
Guardian's feet and confessed his fault, and begged 
to be forgiven for wasting the Brothers' food, and 
for getting them a dinner they could not eat. Then 
he went away by himself, and the rest of that day 
and all the next, he neither ate nor spoke, nor ventured 
to come near any of the Brothers, because he was so 
sorry for his wastefulness and stupidity. 

But the Brothers and the Brother Guardian 
thought they would be willing to know as little about 
cooking as Brother Juniper if they could be like him 
in some other ways. 

THE WIDOW'S CRUSE 

Long, long ago, there was a famine in a little 
town called Sarepta. For months and months 
there had been no rain, and nothing could grow in 
the fields, and the streams dried up and the sheep 
died and many people died, too, because they had 
no food. 

A widow lived in Sarepta, who had one boy, and 
she was poor. When the famine began she had just 
one barrel of meal and one cruse of oil, and because 
she knew she could get no more, she and h&e son 



30 HOUSEKEEPING 

ate as little as they could, but even so, in a few months 
the meal was far down in the bottom of the barrel > 
and the cruse of oil felt very light. 

At last one morning, when the woman got up, 
she found there was only enough meal and oil to 
make one little cake. She looked at it a long time, 
thinking they must certainly starve to death when 
that was gone; then she went out to get some wood 
for the fire, for she said to herself, "I will bake this 
one cake and we will eat it, but after that we will 
have to die." I expect she looked white and sad 
as she went, for it hurts very much to be so hungry 
that you die of it. 

She found a few sticks, and was picking them up, 
when a tall old man stopped beside her and leaned 
on his staff. His clothes were made of hairy skins, 
and he had a long gray beard, and his face and 
arms and legs were brown and rough as if he had 
lived out in the sun and the frost. He seemed to 
have been making a journey, and he asked for a 
drink of water. The widow was glad it was only 
water that he wanted, and was hurrying off to get 
it, when the old man called after her, and asked her 
to bring him a piece of bread. 

She thought of the little bit of meal and oil, and 
of her hungry boy, and of how hungry she was herself 



THE PLAY-HOUSE SI 

— and now, here was this tired old man asking for 
food! It was really more than she could bear. 
She came back toward him and said, "As the Lord 
liveth, I have not a cake, but only a handful of meal 
in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold 
I am gathering two sticks that I may go and dress it 
for me and my son, that we may eat it and die!" 

The old man saw how hungry and desperate she 
looked; it may be that he knew beforehand that she 
was; nevertheless, he said: "Fear not; but go and 
do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little 
cake first, and bring it unto me, and after that make 
for thee and thy son. For thus saith the Lord God 
of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither 
shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord 
sendeth rain upon the earth." 

The widow did not altogether understand what 
he said, but somehow she felt stronger and more 
brave. She went home quickly and baked a little 
meal cake, and brought it to the old man, and asked 
him to come to her house and rest. He went back 
with her, and then she set about baking the rest of 
the meal and oil. She thought it would only make 
a very little cake, but the more meal she took out of 
the barrel, the more there was in it; and the more 
oil she poured from the cruse, the heavier it was 



32 HOUSEKEEPING 

to lift. She could hardly believe it, and yet she saw 
it was surely so. Then she went, crying with 
gladness and relief, and knelt beside the old man 
and thanked him, and begged him to stay with them 
as long as he could. And he did stay, a good many 
months, and all the time of the famine there was meal 
in the barrel and oil in the cruse. 

By and by, the widow and her son learned that 
the old man's name was Elijah, and that he was 
a Prophet of the Lord God of Israel. 

THE LUNCHEON 

If we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, and then 
sailed as far east on the Mediterranean Sea as we 
could, we should come to Asia. Then if we travelled 
into Asia for a little distance, we should come to a 
small lake. Long ago, this lake was called the Sea 
of Galilee, and one of the little towns on the shore 
was named Bethsaida. In this town, almost one 
thousand, nine hundred years ago, a boy lived and 
played and went to school. His uncles had boats 
on the lake, for they were fishermen, and the boy 
played in the boats, and sometimes his Uncle Andrew 
let him go out with him to the fishing. 

Bethsaida was a busy, little town. There was 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 33 

always something to do. The lake and the boats and 
the fishermen and the nets were always there; then 
sometimes Roman soldiers marched into the town, 
and merchants from far-off countries came to trade 
in the market-place. Now and again men came 
who gathered crowds round them, and talked loud 
and shook their clenched fists and tore their long 
robes and kept the town restless for days together. 

The boy liked to go with his uncles to listen to 
these men. He could not understand what they 
were talking about, but the crowd buzzed and 
jostled, and sometimes groaned and yelled. It 
was very exciting. Uncle Peter was often angry 
about what he heard these men say, but Uncle Andrew 
just stroked his beard and went back to the boats. 

The people called a man who spoke to them in 
this way a "Rabbi." This meant in their language, 
a master — a man who knew a great deal about 
something. 

One day, a Rabbi came to Bethsaida, who acted 
differently from the others. He did not make 
speeches in the market-place, and often when people 
were crowding to hear him, he went away on the 
lake or into the hills. If they followed him, he 
would sometimes stand in a boat by the shore, or 
on a hillside, and talk to them; and he could make 



34 HOUSEKEEPING 

sick people well. He liked children; and the boy 
had seen him once stop in the road and talk to a 
woman. That was a very queer thing for a great 
Rabbi to do. 

The boy saw very little of his uncles after this 
new Rabbi came, for they followed him everywhere 
he went and seemed to be his close friends. When they 
did come home they spoke of him as if they did 
not know just what to say, yet always it seemed as if 
they could have said more if they had thought it well. 

One day, the Rabbi and his friends had gone up 
into the hills, and people from the towns on the lake, 
and from the country round it, had gone out to find 
him; for those who had seen him wanted nothing 
so much as to see him again, and those who had 
not seen him could not rest until they had found out 
what the others went to see. The boy had been play- 
ing in the boats that morning, which nowadays 
were most of the time pulled up on the shore, and 
when he saw some of the neighbours setting off for 
the hills, he made up his mind to go too. First, 
though, he thought, " Uncle Andrew will be hungry, 
and so shall I," and he went home and got some 
food to take with him. 

The way up through the hills was long and steep. 
The boy and his neighbours were tired enough 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 35 

before they came in sight of a great crowd of people 
in a green hollow of the hills. It was strange but, 
though there were thousands of people all standing 
together, they did not make a sound. As the boy 
came a little nearer, he heard the Rabbi's voice in 
the stillness. He wondered why the people kept 
so quiet. He did not realize that he was keeping 
very quiet himself. 

After a while he no longer heard the Rabbi's 
voice, and the people began to move and make a 
little murmur of talking. He crept through the 
crowd toward the group round the Rabbi where his 
Uncle Andrew would be. When he got there he 
found they were trying to think of a way to feed all 
these hundreds of people who were tired and hungry, 
and miles away from any place where they could 
get food. That reminded him of the luncheon he 
had brought, and he pushed the basket into Uncle 
Andrew's hand. 

Uncle Andrew looked into the basket and smiled 
when he saw what it had in it. Then he said to the 
Rabbi, "There is a lad here, which hath five barley 
loaves and two small fishes; but what are they among 
so many ?'' All the same, though, he held out the 
basket to the Rabbi, as if he really thought it would 
be of some use to him. 



36 HOUSEKEEPING 

The boy looked to see if the great Rabbi would be 
angry with Uncle Andrew for saying such a useless 
thing, when all the others were trying hard to think 
what could be done. But no; instead of that, he 
looked as if something had made him delightfully 
happy, and he said, '*Make the men sit down.'* 
And they did. Then the Rabbi blessed the five 
little loaves and the two little fishes which he had 
taken out of the basket, and began to break them 
up and give them to those especial friends of his 
who were always with him. And they carried them 
to the people sitting on the grass, and came back 
for more again and again. 

And there always was more. 

The boy went with Uncle Andrew, back and forth, 
again and again. He wanted, more than anything, 
to help in some little way, if it were only to hold 
back his uncle's robe as he bent toward the people 
on the ground. 

When they would walk back for more food, he 
scarcely dared go so near to the wonderful Rabbi. 
And yet — his heart was in his throat with the joy 
and wonder of it — was it not his own barley bread 
and fish that the Rabbi had been so glad to have, 
and with which he was feeding all these thousands 
of hungry people ? • 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 37 

Last of all, after every one was fed, the boy sat 
down close to his uncle and they had some luncheon, 
too; but he could not take his eyes from the Rabbi's 
face. He looked and looked until he could not see 
it any more, for he had gone to sleep in the warm 
grass. 

When he waked the crowd was moving away, and 
his uncle was helping gather up the food which was 
left. The Rabbi had gone away alone into the hills. 

THE FIRE OF COALS 

It was spring-time, and eventide, in the thirty- 
third year of that amazing time when God walked 
on the earth, not only everywhere, and in every man 
as He does now, but Himself in the form of one 
Man. 

Five of those men who loved Him best, and had 
been with Him most often, stood on the shore of 
the Sea of Galilee in the quick-coming darkness. 
Only a week or two before, they had seen their dear 
Lord nailed on a cross and left to die. And He 
had died. And when that happened, they felt they 
could not bear to live any longer. But — what do 
you think .'* — first one, and then another, had seen 
Him alive again, had talked with Him, touched 



38 HOUSEKEEPING 

Him, and been taught by Him as they used to be. 
When He was with them, they wished for nothing else; 
and when He was away they watched and longed 
for His return. 

It had now been several days since He had been 
with them, and meanwhile they had been going 
about among people who thought of them as men 
who had wasted three years wandering round after 
another man, who was always about to do something 
but never did, and who, at last, had been put to death 
by the government. I expect it made these men 
feel lonely then, just as it makes us feel lonely now, 
to have to be with people who think that Our Lord 
is not alive. 

They did not know what to do with themselves as 
they stood on the shore that evening. So, when one 
said, **I go a-fishing,*' all the rest said they would 
go, too. They were glad to be at work again, at 
something they had done all their lives. 

They started out on the dark water under the stars, 
and cast their nets, but when they drew them in, 
they had caught nothing. They cast them again, 
and rowed here and there, and worked as hard as 
they could, but they got no fish for their pains, 
and the night was passing. One cannot tell whether 
or not they thought it strange, that men who had 



THE PLAY-HOUSE 39 

made sick people well, and cast out devils, could not 
now catch a few fish. Whatever they thought, they 
were wet and tired, and hungry, and the cold, gray 
early morning had come. 

When it began to dawn, they rowed toward the 
shore. As they drew near, they saw some one stand- 
ing on the beach who called to them and asked if 
they had any fish. They had to say no. Then 
the Stranger said "Cast the net on the right side of 
the ship, and ye shall find." They had cast it, 
perhaps, in that very place during the night, but 
they did not say so; they just cast the net. When 
they began to draw it, it was heavy with fish. 

This was a strange thing. One of the men said 
very low, "It is the Lord." Then the one who 
had suggested that they go fishing, threw himself 
into the water and swam to the shore; he just could 
not wait. The others came in the boat, dragging 
the net full of fishes. 

As all through the night everything had seemed 
to go wrong, so now, everything was all right. On 
the shore was just the thing that tired, hungry, cold 
people want — a fire, burned down to glowing coals, 
with fish and bread baking on it. 

But that was not the best thing they found on the 
shore. 



40 HOUSEKEEPING 

The Stranger told them to draw up the net, and 
they did, and counted the fish, one hundred and fifty- 
three. Then He told them to come and eat, and 
He said grace for them and waited on them, and 
they knew every word and every gesture, but they 
could not speak. They just ate and rested and 
looked at Him. It made them so glad, and yet it 
almost made them afraid, too, that He should care 
about their hard work, and come and cook for them 
and wait on them Himself. 

Perhaps it often happened in the years which fol- 
lowed, that when a friend, or a woman, or a slave 
came to these men, bringing food and comfort for 
their weariness, that with them came also the memory 
of the dawn on the beach, and the fire of coals, 
and the blessing of a Presence more than theirs. 



PART II 
LEARNING AND HELPING 



LEARNING AND HELPING 

"She was one of those persons who possess, as their exclusire patri- 
mony, the gift of practical arrangement. It is a kind of natural magic 
that enables these favoured ones to bring out the hidden capabilities 
of things around them; and particulariy to give a look of comfort and 
habitableness to any place which, for however brief a period, may 
happen to be their home." 

— Hawthorne 

ONE would like to take the person Hawthorne 
is describing on a camping party or a picnic. 
She would be equally agreeable to stay at 
home with, or to find at home when one came in. 
It is a sign that there is such a person in a house 
when the whole family have to know where ** Mother" 
is, as soon as they get inside the front door. Some- 
times it is a sister or an aunt, sometimes a father, 
who has to be found before one can settle down, 
but whatever the relationship, it is the person who 
makes us feel at home. 

It is odd, is it not, the way we are always saying 
that we "feel at home," or "not at home," or "home- 
sick," or that something is "homelike".^ What do 
we mean by it, anyway.? When people try to tell 



44 HOUSEKEEPING 

what home is, they usually make poor work of it. 
It is not in the least necessary to tell what it is; a 
home is a thing to have, not to talk about. All I 
want to say here is that homes are not houses and 
furniture, but people. There is an Indian proverb 
which says, " The hearth is not a stone but a woman." 
Fathers and brothers have their own share in making 
their homes, but mothers and daughters are more 
apt to take care of their homes and stay in them. 
So it has come to be that making homes is a special 
and particular work of women. 

Whatever work a girl may hope to do in the future, 
she will live somewhere, and whatever that some- 
where is like, it should be as homelike as she can 
make it. This is partly on account of a good many 
people she will find who need a little pleasantness 
and comfort given to them, and partly because she 
will not be comfortable and happy herself unless she 
has something homelike about her. This is why 
it is a great advantage to be a woman; what power 
we have to make homes, we carry with us. Haw- 
thorne says that a woman, who is especially gifted 
in this way, can make a home of any place, even 
though she is there but a few hours — a hotel bed- 
room, for instance. The Indian proverb, however, 
goes even further. It says, not that a woman 



LEARNING AND HELPING 45 

can make a home, but that she is a home. That 
is, we should have the power to make people 
feel at home wherever we are. 

Most women, though, have something more to 
make a home out of than themselves. They 
have little houses or big houses to keep. When 
they begin to do this they find themselves very glad 
of all the cleverness, and learning and experience 
which they can gather. It is much easier to do some 
of this gathering before one has a house of one's 
own, and ways of doing it lie all round us, often 
unrealized and unused. 

Through most of our teens, school is the principal 
thing. Whether we are interested in it or not, it 
is then our recognized occupation. Nowadays, there 
are opportunities in many schools to learn things 
helpful in housekeeping. They are not only to be 
found in cooking and sewing classes. Chemistry 
and physics, which may one or other of them be 
required of you for college entrance examinations, 
are also of excellent service in housekeeping. Some 
of you will be in schools where you can choose to 
some extent what courses you take. In that case, 
do not say chemistry is "messy," and physics is 
"too hard," but just tussle with them for the sake 
of your home-making, as a boy would who knew 



46 HOUSEKEEPING 

he was to be a physician or an engineer. I hardly 
dare to mention it, but detested arithmetic, learned 
in school, often afterward saves the peace of a house- 
hold and the happiness of the housekeeper. Per- 
sonally, I have found what geometry I know useful 
on many unexpected occasions. But to turn to 
a more agreeable subject, I can recommend any 
course in light carpentry, for you will almost 
surely like it if you try it, and no one thing is more 
useful in a house — except perhaps, arithmetic. 

If, on the contrary, you are in a school where there 
are no choices, or if you are obliged to narrow down 
to the requirements of a college entrance examina- 
tion, the only thing to do is to keep in mind the 
things which will be especially useful to you — physi- 
cal sciences, mathematics, manual training, domestic 
science; study some of them if you can, and, besides 
that, see what you can learn at home. I do not 
mean that the other things which you study at school 
are not useful in home-making; they are. It is 
just that certain things are part of the special train- 
ing for this work, and those named above are the 
ones more usually taught in schools. 

We turn now to the preparation which can be 
given to us, and which we give ourselves, at home. 
Ideally, this is the place to learn home-making. 



LEARNING AND HELPING 47 

If we have a home, whether it is a palace or a room 
in a tenement, some one in it "keeps house." If 
that person is one's mother, then is one the normal 
and fortunate person who learns in the normal 
and fortunate way, from being with her. If she 
does some of the work of the house herself, and we 
help her, we learn far more than we realize until 
some moment of emergency comes and we find 
that our eyes, and hands, and noses, and muscles are 
trained for service. 

If your mother merely directs the affairs of her 
house and the details are carried out by others, 
watch how she does it, for this may be the way in 
which you will keep house; and persuade her to 
let you try it, sometime when she is to be absent. 
In this case there will be some one else in the house 
from whom you will need to take a few lessons. 
It will perhaps be a housekeeper, or a very trusted 
maid. Make friends with her and ask her ques- 
tions. If she sees you want to learn and not to 
criticize she will become the most delighted, flattering 
teacher you ever dreamed of. 

If your mother does part or all of the housework 
it will probably be one of your appointed duties to 
assist her. If it should happen, as is sometimes 
the case, that you are not required to help with the 



48 HOUSEKEEPING 

housework, then be a woman, and not a lap dog, and 
ask to help. In the proper story-book, a mother's 
response to such a request would be an affectionate 
answer and much patient teaching, and I think, in 
many, many cases, that is the reply a daughter does 
receive. But just suppose that you are one of the 
other cases. I can imagine a variety of answers 
you might get to "May I help.^" One of them 
might be, "Go out of the kitchen, you'll spoil your 
clothes"; and others might be, "Don't bother me, 
I'm busy," or "Don't interrupt," or, "I'd rather do 
it myself than put up with your clumsiness." 

The first thing to do when one gets an answer 
like this is to go away. The second is according to 
temperament; if you feel hurt and discouraged, 
then, try not to, or if you feel that your responsi- 
bility is ended by the refusal of your offer, then don't 
think that ; it isn't true. Think rather, that you may 
have offered just at the wrong moment — you will 
find when you begin to keep house yourself that 
there are a good many wrong moments — or that 
there may have been some simpler thing you could 
have done which would have been a greater help. 
We might also consider the possibility that our way 
of helping has not been quite agreeable on some 
former occasion. Perhaps, alas, we may be clumsy. 



LEARNING AND HELPING 49 

or we may be slow, or we may be more nuisance 
than help just at first. After we have gone away 
and thought ourselves quiet, then we must do that 
most difficult and heroic of things — try again to 
help the person by whom we have been rebuffed. 

You see I speak entirely of your side in this matter. 
That is because neither you nor I may be permitted 
to pass judgment on your mother. She is like some 
one about whom we have read a short story, we only 
know one little period of her life and only a few of 
her thoughts and feelings even then. She must 
always remain a bit of a mystery to us, because we 
can never know very much about what happened 
before we were born. 

There is a thing which makes helping mothers 
difficult, that one must guard oneself against, espe- 
cially because it is so natural and so insidious. It 
is especially a snare when we learn about house- 
keeping outside of our homes, though it very fre- 
quently lies in wait for us anyway. It is the desire 
to reform our homes and our mothers, and that 
instantly. I venture to say that the trouble with 
this lies in the instantly. The ways you are taught 
at school may be better than mother's ways; but, 
on the contrary, mother's ways may be the result 
of practical experience, and they may be an adapta- 



50 HOUSEKEEPING 

tion to the practical needs and tastes of her family. 
It may be that the things you learn are better adapted 
to your own generation and your own future house- 
keeping than they are to your parents' tastes and 
needs. You are the future, but remember that your 
parents are the past, without which you would 
never have been. There is this also to consider, that 
as we grow older, we grow toward orthodoxy. We 
place our faith in the "new thing" of the hour, 
and in a little while, find that it was proved imprac- 
ticable ten centuries ago. While we are deciding 
that the old people we know are narrow-minded 
old fogies, behold, some girl or boy tells us that the 
reason we do not believe in their theory of the uni- 
verse is because we are "old-fashioned." To you, 
young, thoughtful, and alive, belongs the belief that 
you are born to make the world better; and this 
is true. Not, however, by tearing down is this 
accomplished, but by building up. And the build- 
ing is done by laying in a lifetime one small stone 
in the structure, ages old, which has its foundations 
in the deeps of the universe, and upon whose finished 
spires shall shine the glory of Heaven. 

But there — it is of some practical ways of helping 
mother, and thereby learning housekeeping, that I 
wish to speak just now. They belong to the class 



LEARNING AND HELPING 51 

of things called little services, but I can assure you, 
they are great, in tact, and helpfulness and love. 
They are homely; but they are just the sort of things 
angels would like to do. Dusting is one of them, 
the little everyday dusting which makes such a 
difference in the tidiness of the house, and perhaps 
takes five minutes, or less, to a room. With this 
goes taking up crumbs in the dining room, with a 
sweeper or dustpan and brush, and arranging 
flowers and watering plants. Tidying means remov- 
ing dirt and litter, and putting each thing in the place 
where it belongs. Tidiness is not a housekeeper's 
superstition; it is a mechanical device for invoking 
the spirit of restfulness. 

Another homely thing always needing to be done 
is mending. It is, by nature, incidental work, and 
therefore it is especially grateful to the housekeeper 
to have it done by an incidental helper. I do not 
mean merely darning stockings and sewing on but- 
tons though that is the larger part of it, but also, 
mending which is done with hammer and tacks, 
or glue, or perhaps a varnish brush. I mean all 
those odd jobs which pursue the busy housewife 
in the hours when she ought to rest. Get your 
mother to write a list of these odd jobs on her mem- 
orandum pad, as she sees or thinks of them during 



52 HOUSEKEEPING 

the day, then see how many of them you can find 
a way to do. 

If your household does not include a waitress, 
there is a class of small services which need to be 
done before each meal. One is not quite so sure 
to be at home at meal times, as if one were a boy, 
but one can arrange to be. Certain things are 
needed on the table which come from the refriger- 
ator or the cellar, cool things which should be put 
on at the last moment. The cook has already fifty 
things to do at the last moment, and few things 
relieve her more than to know that she need not 
think of the table until she puts the meal upon it. 
I saw a girl, once, looking at the dining-room table, 
and tapping out some sort of rhythm with four 
finger-tips against her cheek. She owned up that 
she was saying to herself, "Bread, butter, milk and 
water" — four things which she had made it her 
business to see on the table before each meal. Some- 
times there were jelly and pickles and other relishes 
to put on, but these four, which she counted off 
on her fingers and her cheek, were the essentials. 

Wiping and putting away the dishes is a small serv- 
ice which one can do often and acceptably. It is 
elsewhere described, but is also mentioned here 
because it belongs to this list of opportunities. 



LEARNING AND HELPING 53 

If your mother, or whoever does the cooking in your 
house, likes to be helped with it, there will be many 
little things which you can do, like beating eggs for 
instance, or shelling peas. No one can tell you what 
they are, though, except the person who is cooking. 

How many, and which of these small services 
you are able to do, depend on how long your school 
hours are, and on what sort of health you have, 
and on how much of the housework is done by the 
family. It is not fatal if you do not do any of them, 
provided your reason is not laziness or selfishness. 

There is another group of small things, helpful, 
but more personal to yourself, which you are less 
likely to be prevented from doing. You probably 
have a room, or half a one, and a closet, and bureau 
drawers, and certainly clothes, which are your own. 
Possession means responsibility. If we find this 
sharp-cornered foundation-stone of truth in the 
depths of our own bureau drawers, it is less likely 
to fall heavily on us later on. Our own things and 
the places in which they are kept should be our own 
care, and not another's. 

It may not be your business to do the periodical 
sweeping in your room, but the daily dusting and 
tidying the household authorities will be glad to 
have you do. 



54 HOUSEKEEPING 

You cannot find a better way to learn to make 
beds than to make your own, for in that case you get 
the benefit of the insufficient airing or the crease, 
or the crumb, which you have let go. If, for some 
reason, you cannot make your bed every day, try 
to do it on Sunday. It is a custom of gentleness 
from one woman to another. 

Keeping a room in order is accomplished by the 
same means that any tidiness is brought about, 
that is, by having a place for things and seeing that 
they are there. The things that most girls want 
in their rooms are apt to be hard to keep in order. 
They are things which our heartless elders call 
"trash." I would not undertake to say what a 
girl's room should or should not contain, but I 
would ask her not to have so many things that they are 
either never neat or else a tormenting care; not to hang 
things on her walls which are vulgar or silly; and not 
to leave her clothes and little adornments for other 
people to put away. Keeping one's own possessions 
in order is a reasonable service to others, and one 
of the natural, gradual ways of learning home- 
making. 

Will you turn over a few pages and read the sug- 
gestions about the fittings and care of closets you 
will find in the chapter on upstairs work.? Bureau 



LEARNING AND HELPING 55 

drawers, however, are not mentioned elsewhere than 
here, for I consider them the private property of 
individuals, to be cared for by their owners and not 
to be intruded upon by others except in emergency. 
Articles put in drawers should be classified as far 
as possible, and things used least often should be 
put in drawers least easy to get at. Suppose, for 
instance, a bureau has four drawers, the lowest is 
probably deepest and requires stooping to open it. 
In it can go best waists, and sashes, and girdles, and 
scarfs, and fluffy objects which should lie loosely. 
In the third drawer underclothes might be put; 
to be folded and packed close does not hurt them. 
As they are things which go into the wash, they 
should be worn in rotation, and this is accomplished 
without thought or trouble if we pile all the garments 
of the same kind together and always put the newly 
washed ones on the top or the bottom of the pile, 
and take the ones we are to wear from the opposite 
place. It takes a great many troublesome words 
to describe this action, which is very simple, and 
almost immediately becomes mechanical. In the 
second drawer of this possible bureau might go 
collars, and handkerchiefs, and gloves, and ties, and 
things which must be kept uncrumpled. If one 
has ample room, pretty boxes are good to keep these 



56 HOUSEKEEPING 

things in, and they make for neatness. If one must 
economize space, it is better to have some squares 
of silk, or pretty coloured linen or silkoline in which 
one's possessions can be laid flat, and then the four 
corners of the wrapper folded over upon them. I 
have found these more convenient to get into and 
more easily washed than regular veil and necktie 
and glove cases. 

The top drawer is the one which locks most 
securely, because it is under the top of the bureau, 
instead of under another drawer which might be 
removed. It is therefore the one in which people 
usually keep the things which they especially value, 
and their pocketbooks or handbags. If a part of 
the top drawer is set apart for the collars, ties, hand- 
kerchiefs, hair ribbons and belts which are in imme- 
diate use, it will assist immensely to keep a room and 
bureau top neat. One does not wish to put things, 
which have been worn, away with things which are 
perfectly fresh, and one wants the belt and ribbons 
which one wears for two or three days in succes- 
sion close at hand. If they are folded or rolled up 
to keep them shapely, and put in a space in the top 
drawer which has been chosen for the purpose, 
time and tidying will be saved. The space will 
need emptying out frequently, but that can be done 



LEARNING AND HELPING 57 

on those Saturdays when one is seized with a sudden 
clearing-up fit. 

Care of our clothes is not directly related to 
housekeeping — it is only a collateral relation. A 
neat house, however, is marred if the housekeeper 
herself is untidy. For our immediate purpose, 
though, the point is, that the habit of caring for our 
clothes, and the deftness and inventiveness which 
such care requires, are qualities constantly useful 
in housekeeping. I met a woman once, who boasted 
that she did not know how to hold a needle, but give 
her a hammer and nails and she could do anything. 
I happened to see her later with a hammer and nails, 
and she was clutching the hammer close to the head, 
and pounding in nails with more disregard for the 
help of leverage, than if she had been a cave- woman 
pounding a stake with a stone. Some people can 
hammer who cannot sew; and some people can sew 
who cannot hammer; some people can do neither, 
and some people can do both. But the fact remains 
that if we can use our hands and heads cleverly 
for one thing, we have a better chance of using them 
cleverly for another; and blacking shoes, and bind- 
ing skirts, and mending stockings, and putting in 
ruchings, are steps in an apprenticeship to more 
interesting and clever work. Incidentally, too, we 



58 HOUSEKEEPING 

are giving ourselves that exquisite daintiness which 
is one of a girl's charms. 

At least one means of learning something of 
housekeeping lies open to every creature. That 
means is an observing interest. We never remain 
entirely ignorant of the things in which we are 
interested. We gather ideas about them everywhere, 
and in the most unexpected and unintentional places. 
If we sit at tables where the meals are carefully 
served and well cooked, that privilege teaches 
many things about serving and cooking. There is 
as much to learn in a cheap restaurant, if we watch 
how things are done, and think out the reason for 
the methods. If we watch a servant or a housewife 
doing work well, we need never again be entirely 
ignorant of how to do that work. If we read a book 
or hear a lecture, or overhear a scrap of talk in a 
street car which contains a thought to help us or 
an unusual method to be tried, it ought to stick to 
our memories as if magnetized. Think in the morn- 
ing that you w^ant to know something about the 
cats in Thibet, and almost surely before night, you 
will have heard or read something about them. 
We know how often this is true of remote and unus- 
ual affairs; it is infinitely more true of intimate 
daily ones. It is a great blessing; a means of getting 



LEARNING AND HELPING 59 

knowledge without other struggle than remembering 
what we want to know. If it is not a royal road, 
it is at least a royal by-path, to learning. 

Some day, you will discover that you are "grown 
up," and if you have learned what you could and 
helped when you could, you will discover, too, that 
you have the gift and power to make a home — that 
you are a woman, who is not a stone but a hearth. 



PART III 
MY HERITAGE 



MY HERITAGE 

"The lot has fallen unto me in a fair ground, yea, I have a goodly 
heritage." 

THERE is a deep surprise and joy in these 
words, which grows to exultation. They 
might have been spoken by one who had 
climbed a height to look for the first time on the 
place where henceforth his life and work were to 
be, and saw in the curve of many-folded, blue hills, 
white roads with crops warming in the fields on either 
hand, woods and streams, laden orchards, and 
vines in garlands. 

"It is a fair ground." Then — ^''y^^* I ^i^ve a 
goodly heritage." There is joy in beauty, and in 
possession — and more than that. There is exulta- 
tion in the vision of seed-time and harvest, of growing 
beauty and usefulness, of life renewed; and in the 
strength and power to work for all this and to achieve 
it. 

It is not fanciful to say that a woman may regard 
her heritage in some such way as this. The child- 



64 HOUSEKEEPING 

hood, and the homes of the world are hers, and her 
work is the making of men and women. If she 
chooses to say that God has exalted His handmaiden, 
who is able to deny it ? 

The particular work of women is not just like any 
other work; indolence and failure in doing it, how- 
ever, have been too often excused on account of this 
fact. Their work is yearly becoming more and 
more allied with other commercial, intellectual and 
moral activities. Even their housekeeping is no 
longer a disagreeable thing kept out of sight as 
much as possible, as the plumbing used to be. Its 
varied problems are being recognized and studied. 
Nobody denies that they are diflScult, but it is not 
reasonable to suppose that they are the most diflBcult 
in the world, nor that they are unsolvable. One 
reason why they are diflScult is that they are an 
attempt to establish order and law, without destroy- 
ing individuality and freedom; and another reason 
is that the housewife exercises her profession chiefly 
for the benefit of her own family. If the physician 
had to doctor himself, the preacher preach to his 
wife, and the teacher teach his own children, their 
professions might be in as much confusion as the 
housekeeping profession is. The efforts to do away 
with these difficulties by having families live together. 



MY HERITAGE 65 

eat together, or do anything else in a wholesale way, 
have not succeeded and have led in a wrong direction. 
What is wanted is a way to preserve the separate 
family and the separate family home, not a way to 
make them into something else. 

Difficulty is a characteristic of their work which 
should appeal to women. They are seeking to do 
difficult things. They are seeking to prove that 
there is no profession, nor labour, nor art in which 
they cannot succeed. In many cases they have 
succeeded admirably; it has not proved the point 
they set out to prove however, but another. What 
they have proved by their activities is that they are 
amply able to solve the problems and accomplish 
the organization of the work which is especially 
their own. They cannot get it believed that they are 
equal to anything while their own work lies undone 
— while they wilfully leave the home or help- 
lessly stay in it. 

Things which we are proud to do in other fields, 
we neither see nor do in our own. For the sake 
of a college degree, or a paper to be read before 
a club, we delve in difficult books; yet we do not 
study, nor even read about our own work. We 
would be proud to invent a flying machine, or a 
mud-digger, yet most of the inventions to aid house- 



66 HOUSEKEEPING 

work are made by men. We aspire to be stock- 
brokers, merchants, accountants, bankers — while 
housekeeping finance has become a stock joke. 
We are eager to study social problems and take 
up settlement work, but we do not think it worth 
while to study our own cooks. We feel in our- 
selves a power to organize and betake us to the 
club, and leave the cook and the nursemaid to 
organize our homes and our children's lives. We 
have raised the woman's work of teaching a d of 
nursing into excellent professions, and yet we are 
ready to sit down and cry before the difficulties 
of housekeeping. 

Unpleasant and monotonous things, which we 
claim make our own work unbearable, we ignore 
in occupations which we covet or admire. Under 
Mr. Kipling's influence we cultivate an enthusiasm 
for machinery and engineering, but we neglect his 
constantly emphasized lesson that the digging of 
a canal or the building of a bridge involves humble 
toil and unsightly details far beyond any we may 
encounter in peeling potatoes or washing dishes. 
W^e look at the wide, slow waters which have been 
let into the land and they silence us; we follow 
with our eyes the great span of the bridge and hold 
our breath as if it were music. It is right that we 



MY HERITAGE 67 

wonder and admire. They are great things. But 
see that woman beside you who is looking at the 
bridge with such especial interest. Is the bridge any 
more wonderful than her son, who built it.? He 
is what she has built. It seems to me, one might 
peel several tons of potatoes as a thank-offering 
for a son. 

But I will not take such high ground as to suppose 
that we might be willing to do some hard and dis- 
agreeable things just because we feel very earnestly 
the privilege and glory of being women. Much 
more ordinary considerations urge us to get about 
our work. If the engineer son of whom we were 
speaking said, "Estimates make me nervous," or, 
"I hate dealing with dirty, foreign labourers," or, 
"You can't expect me to concern myself with the 
nasty river-bottom when I have the arch of a bridge 
in my mind," or, "This work is so monotonous, I 
certainly have a right to one day a week when I 
can go to town and shop" — if he said these things, 
we should say he was — effeminate 

Effeminate ! 

Our times are so quick that, if we went earnestly 
to work, the next generation would see nothing in 
the remarks quoted above, to suggest a woman. 

And do you know that this work of ours is a pro- 



68 HOUSEKEEPING 

fession in which we can be as clever, and independent, 
and advanced, and emancipated as we please, and 
no man will like us the less for it. They like us to 
be inconsistent and unexpected, and they do not 
like us to know more than they do. But if we can 
keep house thriftily and comfortably and not bother 
them with it, they like that. In this we are not their 
rivals. They like our charming unexpectedness 
better elsewhere than in the butcher's bills; and they 
love the inconsistency of the woman who, in the 
home which her cleverness and toil have made peace- 
ful and adequate, is yet full of pleasure and wonder 
at the things her husband or her son has accom- 
plished. 

This is my thought of our fair heritage of clever, 
helpful and devoted work, with its goodly promise 
of a harvest of people whom we have helped to be 
happier and better. Such is the country of my 
Vision. 



II 

THE PLAN 

IF WE want something, we plan to get it. 
We sav, *'I will do this, not that; I will 
use my time, as I have little strength; I 
will give my strength, as I have little money; or, I 
will give my money as I have little time to give." 
A plan is merely a series of choices, a record of 
things taken and things left for the sake of obtain- 
ing some end or of following some ideal. 

If we wish the people for whom we keep house to 
be well and happy, and good, we shall plan to make 
them so, as earnestly and definitely as if we were 
making a train schedule, or drawing the plans of 
a house, or writing the outline of a book. 

The object of a housekeeping plan may be an 
ideal, but the plan is based on a definite, practical 
fact — the amount of income. The plan itself is 
the record of the choices made in the outlay of that 
amount of income. 

The first thing for a family to do when they wish 
to make a plan, is to impress on their minds, not 

69 



70 HOUSEKEEPING 

what they think they will have or what they think 
they ought to have, but the definite amount of 
money which they have. Some people gamble 
who do not go to races or play cards. They bet 
on futurity by spending something they expect to 
make, or risk a purchase on the security of Aunt 
Maria's usual Christmas present. The indications 
of this sort of gambling are the casual remarks one 
hears too often; "I just had to have it," or "We 
could not keep up our position without it," or, "I 
can't have my children dressed like beggars," or 
"It was awfully expensive, but I will save on some- 
thing else." They are silly words and not honest. 
Silly, because they mean that some momentary 
self-indulgence has been thought worth the price 
of long unrest and anxiety; not honest, because if 
people have what they cannot pay for, they have 
what some one else has paid for as truly as if they 
had carried oif a parcel belonging to the person 
standing beside them at a counter. In that matter 
of Aunt Maria, there is an extra offense. A gift 
should bring some special pleasure, or meet some 
special emergency. Counted on, or spent beforehand, 
it gives no happy surprise, no unexpected pleasure 
or relief; and what is worse, Aunt Maria gets no 
more happiness from making the gift than she would 



THE PLAN 71 

from paying the interest on a mortgage. Counting on 
gifts is a mean trick. If a child's parents do this, 
they cannot reasonably blame him for calculating 
the inheritance he will acquire at their death. 

The income from some kinds of work is of necessity 
uncertain. This makes the housekeeping plan espec- 
ially difficult. Probably the wisest way to meet this 
is to pretend that one's income is an amount some- 
what under one's brightest hopes, and to live on that 
amount. In case of a disappointment, there is not 
then so large a deficit to struggle with; or, if the 
hopes come true, the surplus can very easily be put 
into a needed garment or a needed pleasure, or 
perhaps into the savings bank. Some people manage 
uncertain incomes by the month instead of the year. 
The trouble with this is that there is likely to be 
"always a feast or a famine," and that is demoraliz- 
ing. As far as possible, a family should have an 
established style of living, to be changed only grad- 
ually, as an assured income increases. 

This thing called the style of living is the insidious, 
untiring rival of that hard, cold fact, the amount of 
income. The two are forever quarrelling. Logi- 
cally, the amount of income should settle the style 
of living, but often people spend weary lives trying 
to stretch the hard fact to fit its ever- increasing rival. 



72 HOUSEKEEPING 

This conflict is the source of most household troubles, 
and quarrels, and sorrows. What is the matter? 
Why is one less ashamed to wear one's heart on 
one's sleeve than a patch ? Why would you rather 
owe the grocer, than say to your friend, "I can't 
afford it ?" Why, when I say I am not ashamed 
to be poor, does the blood rise in my cheeks to belie 
my words? Poverty is not a badge of failure and 
laziness. It is often a decoration for high principle, 
or for noble self-sacrifice, — it is the lady-love of 
saints. 

Very soon and very often in housekeeping, 
whatever may be the income, the conflict will arise 
between needs and wants and the financial ability 
to supply them. For this struggle we must gather 
our common sense and courage. They will help 
us to choose the things which really matter, and to 
laugh at ourselves for pretending to have what we 
have not. 

Some husbands and wives make the financial 
plans of the family together. In other cases, the 
husband decides what amount of the income should 
be spent on the table, and the wife plans only the 
expenditure of that. The households in which the 
wife buys and the husband pays without consulta- 



THE PLAN 73 

tion or agreement, exist, but let us hope they are 
few. Then, there is the household in which the 
woman is financier, and the man lives on an allow- 
ance. And, of course, there are a great number 
of households which are not complete families, but 
are groups of people, related or unrelated, who 
make their homes together, and in which the division 
of income is made by one person, or by the group, 
as they wish or are compelled by circumstances. 

Plans for a whole income are considered here 
because they include the problems and details of 
less elaborate plans. 

As has been said, the first thing for a family to do 
is to find out their definite income, irrespective of 
Aunt Maria. Incomes of all sizes are lived on in 
some way. The way which their income will cover, 
is the style of living suitable for a family. If the 
family income pinches, however, and there is some 
way of increasing it which does not destroy the 
home life, nor work some member of the family 
to death, then it is well to take that way. But only 
in cases verging on starvation, should an increase 
in income be made by the homemaker leaving her 
housekeeping, or the breadwinner working eighteen 
hours a day. 

When the amount of the income is found out. 



74 HOUSEKEEPING 

the next thing is to divide it among the family needs 
in a reasonable proportion. This proportion is 
decided in the first place according to necessity, and 
in the second, according to taste. 

Let us take for illustration a family with an income 
of $2,000 a year. And then let us take, from Mrs. 
Ellen H. Richards's book called " The Cost of Living," 
the following proportions for an income of that 
amount. 

i for food. 

i " rent. 

■is " running expenses. 

^ " clothes. 

i " miscellaneous expenses. 

Translated into dollars this is: 

$500 for food. 
400 " rent. 

300 " running expenses. 

300 " clothes. 
500 " miscellaneous expenses. 

The next thing is to find out whether this is a 
possible proportion for us, if this income is our own. 

Food, $500 a year, $9.61 a week, $1.37 a day — 
we shall probably think this a possible allowance. 

Rent $400 a year, $33 a month — here there may 
be a difficulty. 

If we own a house in a country town or a suburb, 



THE PLAN 75 

we can probably pay the taxes and make repairs, 
and have something left from $400. If we rent a 
house in a country town or in a not too popular suburb 
we can perhaps get it for less than $400, but in the 
latter case, the remainder may need to be used in 
carfares if some member of the family has to go 
to the city every day. If we live in a flat in a large 
city, it is an uninviting one that can be had for $33 
a month, and even so, nothing is left for carfares. 
Regular carfares are usually reckoned in the 
department with the rent, becf>use the place where 
one's home is situated determines their amount. 

Here are two cases, then, in which the proportion 
for rent does not work. The first, in which there 
is more money than is necessary to provide a dwelling, 
is easily arranged. The surplus can be used for 
more clothes, or more "help," or to satisfy more of 
the unfailing supply of miscellaneous needs, or it 
can be put by for future needs. 

The second case, in which we feel we must have 
a $40 flat and have only $33 with which to pay for 
it, is not as hopeless as it looks. For the next thing 
in the table of proportions is $300 a year for running 
expenses, that is, wages, fuel, light, water, etc. 
Here is at once a partial solution of the rent difficulty. 
In that forty-dollar flat, heat and water are supplied. 



76 HOUSEKEEPING 

If we use gas for cooking, $7 a month will be an 
average gas bill for a careful family, that is $84 a year. 
This amount will likewise cover the expense if we 
use gas for light and coal for the range. Then if 
we pay three dollars a week to an inexperienced 
girl, or $1.50 a day for two days a week to a com- 
bination washerwoman and scrubwoman, that will 
be $156 a year. Our running expenses will then be 
$240 a year. The $60 saved will pay $5 a month 
on the rent, and we shall then need only $2 a month 
more to secure the forty-dollar flat. 

Next, $300 for clothes. In a year when things 
have lasted over, we may be able to get the $2 a 
month for the rent from this department. If, on 
the contrary, there is a new overcoat, or a new 
street dress to buy, or a new member of the family 
to clothe, then it cannot be spared. 

The next division is $500 for holidays, recreations, 
books, charity, savings, doctors' bills and all unclassi- 
fied expenses. This is the division which is most 
difficult to manage. If we think we cannot spare 
that $24 from the clothes department, we shall 
need to consider very carefully whether we take 
it from this, or from the food department. We 
shall have to consider the price of food in the neigh- 
bourhood; the health of the family; how much they 



THE PLAN 77 

need a holiday; whether there is any special purpose 
for which we must save; whether there is some piece 
of furniture much needed; whether there is a present 
which we greatly desire to give. And these are only 
samples of the things which will need to be considered. 
A choice must be made, though, however difficult, 
for when one item of expenditure in the family life 
is exceptionally large, there is but one thing to do, that 
is, to decide, reasonably and carefully, in what other 
department of living the expenditure can be lessened. 
In this case of a high rent which has just been 
described, see in the table below what has happened. 





Food 


Rent 


Running 
Expenses 


Clothes 


Miscellaneous 
Expenses 


Mrs. Richards's 
Division 


500 


400 


300 


300 


500 


Division 
for high rent 


500 


480 


240 


300 


480 



80 



60 



:20 



The high rent is balanced by a saving in running 
expenses and in some item of miscellaneous expense. 

This is merely a suggestion of the way in which 
a housekeeping plan is worked out. Every family 
has its own needs and wants, and its income must 
be proportioned to suit them as far as possible. If 
your income is larger than the one used as an example, 
you will find that the department of miscellaneous 



78 HOUSEKEEPING 

expenses will grow and need to be subdivided many 
times — you will have more concerts than cabbages 
— if, on the contrary, your income is less than the 
example, you will find that the food and rent depart- 
ments will begin to swallow up the other departments. 
An example of the extreme of this is exhibited by 
a budget of housekeeping expenses given by Mr. 
Arthur Morrison in the Fortnightly Revieiv a few 
years ago, for a family with an income of £1 10s. 
a week — about $7.50 a week and $390 a year. 

s. d. 

Rent 7 

Meat and fish 5 5 

Bread and flour 2 1^ 

Groceries 1 8 

Cheese, butter, eggs, bacon 1 11 

Green groceries 1 3 

Fuel 2 

Oil, etc 1 7^ 

Clothes 2 

Club and insurance 1 

Beer and tobacco 2 9 

Balance 1 3 

£1 10s. 

This table, roughly calculated, gives the following 
proportions : 

A little more than I for food. 

A little more than i for rent. 

A little more than -is for running expenses. 

A littld more than tV for clothes. 

A little more than rs for other expenses. 



THE PLAN 79 

Nearly half the income was used for food; the 
same proportion for rent as it is reckoned should 
be paid by a family with an income of $2,000; and 
about a third ($2.50 in our money) was left for fuel, 
clothes, and every other need or want. Yet Mr. 
Morrison says that if the wife is not lazy and the 
husband does not drink, a family can live in London 
on this income and manage to be well and decent. 
"Pretty hard!" — yes. "Pretty sordid!" — no. 
Courage and perseverance and self-denial made 
that budget, such as most of us save up for heroic 
occasions, and would not think of expending upon 
marketing and meal getting. 

One cannot be as definite about housekeeping 
plans as one would like to be in dealing with such 
a definite and practical subject. In the nature of 
things, each family must decide on the purposes for 
which its income is used, and on the amount to be 
devoted to each. I cannot, however, emphasize 
too strongly the necessity of definiteness on the part 
of those dealing with their own actual incomes. 
A carefully thought out plan of expenditure, written 
down and earnestly adhered to, is a family backbone. 
A first plan has to be made somewhat in the dark, 
but every year brings enlightenment and confidence. 
Though the purposes for which their income is 



80 HOUSEKEEPING 

used are for each family to decide upon, yet I venture 
to lay stress upon three purposes which are often 
subdivisions of that general and entirely voluntary 
department of miscellaneous expenses. For con- 
venience, I shall call them, "Allowances," "The 
Tenth," and "Savings." 

There is an odd sort of innate privacy about money 
matters. Children are taught that it is ill-bred to 
open other peoples' pocketbooks or checkbooks, 
or to ask them what their possessions cost. As they 
grow up they find that business affairs are con- 
sidered confidential, and that no honourable person 
investigates another's money affairs without some 
authority. It is desirable that these rules of honour 
should be preserved, and one simple way to help 
in this is to arrange that each member of the family 
has an allowance, if it is only five cents a week — 
an allowance for which he is responsible to him- 
self alone. These allowances should go down 
in the family accounts as "Allowances," the details 
belong to the individual. The members of families 
in which this arrangement is made should con- 
scientiously keep their private expenses within the 
amount agreed upon, for allowances not only teach 
the right of individual privacy, they teach that old and 
difficult lesson that "you can't eat your cake and 



THE PLAN 81 

have it too"; — that one can't have marbles and 
candy the same week. An allowance also supplies 
each person with something to give away, which 
is really his to give. He may not have earned it 
by work, but he has earned it by going without 
something he would have liked to spend it for. 
There is yet another purpose which allowances serve. 
They help to prevent the failure of a plan of expendi- 
ture. For they keep a strict and careful plan from 
becoming a galling chain. They prevent the absorp- 
tion of personal privacy and freedom by the regula- 
tions of the family as a group against which the 
individual, sooner or later, invariably rebels. 

"The Tenth" is that part of the family income, 
more or less than an actual tenth, which is given 
away. It is not mine to offer advice as to the size 
or use of this division. I merely emphasize its 
necessity. It is the small thing, which keeps mean- 
ness and bitterness out of the management of scanty 
means, and selfishness and brutality out of the 
management of ample means. Establish a give- 
away division in your plan, for the sake of your 
own disposition, if you are not urged to it by any 
other consideration. 

Next to this division, which is considered the 
generous division, comes one which has a less 



82 HOUSEKEEPING 

agreeable reputation, but undeservedly — "Savings." 
Many people who will say giving is a good thing, 
will deny that saving is. And is it ? Why ? "VMiat 
is it for ? It is to provide those who suffer adversity, 
or who live to old age, against becoming a "public 
charge"; or against dependence upon relatives and 
friends. There is a fine honour in not taking the 
risk of these things. One ought to be willing to 
struggle hard and self-denyingly to save oneself and 
one's family from becoming burdens to other people. 

Perhaps you say, "But why pinch and save for 
something which may never happen .P" If you 
speak as one solitary individual, it is true, you may 
die before old age; it is the rare family, however, 
in which some member does not need a provision 
for a last period of helplessness. Then, there are 
those things called adversities, and those things 
called opportunities, which turn to adversities if 
they cannot be used. Do you know many people, 
who have not at some time been in a difl&culty 
where they needed money, or who have not had a 
chance that depended on an outfit or a pledge ? Is 
it reasonable to expect to run to some one else for 
help at such times ? 

And, by the way, to whom would you run? To 
the friend who is the open-handed, good companion. 



THE PLAN 83 

or to the careful, farseeing friend? Of the two, 
which is the more to be depended upon, the more 
finely honourable, the more worthy to be imitated ? 

There are two very usual ways of keeping savings. 
Life insurance is one of them. It is more than a 
way of keeping savings, for in most cases, the amount 
finally received is more than the amount paid in. 
It has this advantage, and also the advantage that 
the savings thus laid by are only available at a 
time of great need — sickness, accident or death — or 
sometimes, after a long period of years. It has the 
corresponding disadvantages that these savings are 
not available for small needs, and also that they may 
be lost, if for any reason the subsequent premiums 
cannot be paid. 

A savings-bank account is another way of keeping 
savings. Savings banks will take money in very 
small sums and will pay a reasonable interest on it. 
This method of keeping savings has the advantage 
that the money can be drawn whenever it is needed, 
but the resulting disadvantage that the account may 
be small at the moment of sudden need. If it is 
possible, as it often is, to have both a life insurance 
and a savings-bank account, a household may 
feel well protected against calamity, and well pro- 
vided against sudden wants. 



84 HOUSEKEEPING 

If some member of a family has a life insurance, 
a definite premium will have to be paid at definite 
times. A savings-bank account is not so insistent. 
But to succeed in saving and to do it with as little 
discomfort as possible, it is better to put ten dollars 
or ten cents into an account on the first day of the 
month, and forget about it, than to save five cents 
in carfare on Monday, one cent on a newspaper 
on Tuesday, ten cents on lunch on Wednesday, and 
so on. 

You will say that it amounts to the same thing. 
That if that money is put into the bank, all these 
little pinching economies will have to be borne as 
a consequence. That is logical, but only to a certain 
extent true in practice. In one case, that of the 
definite amount put away monthly, the money is 
saved because it is not there to spend; in the other 
case, it is there, but is saved with the thought of sav- 
ing. The latter method means going without every- 
thing that possibly can be gone without. It is the 
method by which one fills a Lenten mitebox — it 
is disciplinary, that is, it is meant to hurt a little, 
and it does. People do not keep Lent all the year, 
however; it is an especial season for an especial 
purpose. At some time of serious difficulty in house- 
hold affairs, it may become necessary to save in this 



THE PLAN 85 

Lenten way, but the usual, regular sort of saving, 
which is a duty for life with most of us, should be 
done as far as possible by a decision once carefully 
made, and afterward automatically carried out. 

I wish I could in some way show the pleasant 
side of the matter of savings. There is much com- 
fort and gladness in the possession of a small reserve 
fund. The mere sight of the big, ugly Savings 
Bank which contains it can give new courage. We 
look up at the building in passing and know we 
have there the chance to start again if we are not 
succeeding; a holiday if we very much need one; 
weeks to recover in if we are ill; protection from 
dependence upon other people; the power to keep 
some one we love from suffering; and the joy of 
sometimes giving a gift. 

And now, a word more on the subject of choices. 

In a little town I know, there live two old women. 
One will not go to prayer meeting because she 
cannot afford to put five cents into the collection 
basket; the other goes every week and contributes 
one bright penny. She devoutly brightens it on a 
piece of old carpet before she starts. As it is such 
a little gift, it must be made as fair as possible. 

There is a stern business principle in the whole of 



86 HOUSEKEEPING 

life. It is that law of choice of which we spoke at 
first. If we have a thing, we must in some way pay 
for it, we cannot have the thing and its price too. 
We pay in various commodities: in work, in money, 
in time, in ability, in thoughtfulness, in suffering; 
but in some way we pay. It is not a harsh and ungen- 
erous law; it is to be rejoiced in. God meant us 
to be self-supporting, not objects of charity. 

The trouble with His law is made by us. Some 
of us try to get out of paying at all; some of us are 
angry because we would rather pay in something 
we have not. We would rather pay for food and 
clothes with money only, instead of with a little 
money and much thought and labour. We would 
like to buy our friend a birthday gift, instead of 
writing that birthday letter which costs us thought- 
fulness and an ache in our pride. Because we 
cannot afford a holiday, we will not pay for comfort 
and pleasantness at home with the coin of gaiety, or a 
favourite dessert, or a new book from the Library. 

Each of you, and I, whatever our incomes, have 
our choices of this kind to make, and the price of 
them to pay. 

— It is prayer-meeting night. Shall we stay at 
home ? — Or rub up a penny ? 



Ill 

THE ACCOUNTS 

WHEN a family have made a plan of yearly 
expenditure, they must have some way 
of testing at short intervals whether they 
are keeping to it or not, and some record by which 
at the end of the year they can tell whether their 
plan is a good one. These tests and records are 
furnished by accounts. 

Accounts are as old as the brick books of Assyria. 
They have been found necessary to business trans- 
actions for ages. One of the reasons that house- 
keeping does not receive its proper recognition as 
a business and a profession is that it does not bear 
the stamp of either in the form of accurate accounts 
and statistics. Perhaps these are lacking because 
so many women are driven to tears or fury by 
accounts. It is odd that they are, too, for they keep 
golf and tennis scores, and devote themselves to 
whist, and are madly fascinated with jig-saw 
puzzles, and all these things are a good deal like 
accounts. 

87 



88 HOUSEKEEPING 

A favourite excuse for not keeping accounts is 
this: "I have just so much, and I can't spend what 
I haven't, so what's the use?" This ignores two 
things. The first is, that spending a little more 
than one's income, and thus gradually running up 
a debt, is an extremely easy thing to do. The 
second is, that people who do not plan their expendi- 
tures, deprive themselves of the chance to choose 
what their expenditures shall be made for. If you 
plan to have strawberries and cream on the first 
Monday in February, and bread and tea on the 
next Saturday, and you like that, then there is nothing 
more to say — except to hope for improvement in 
the next generation. If, however, in the exuberance 
of appetite or hospitality you have strawberries 
and cream on the first Monday in February, and are 
awfully surprised to find you can only afford bread 
and tea on Saturday — then you need to realize that 
you have deprived yourself of the freedom of choice, 
whether right or wrong, and that you had better 
keep a few accounts. The moment a family have 
one penny more than they need to buy the food 
which will keep them alive, there comes to be an 
element of choice in the spending of that penny. 
When the penny grows to an amount not easily 
calculated mentally, that freedom of choice is only 



THE ACCOUNTS 89 

obtainable by accepting the bondage of some sort 
of accounts. It is like the bondage of the truth, it 
makes us free. 

There are many methods and variations of methods 
of keeping accounts. Mr. Morrison's woman with 
thirty shillings a week undoubtedly kept her ac- 
counts in her head, but she kept them. Many 
women keep accounts with a collection of small 
boxes or envelopes, each marked with the name of the 
commodity for which the money within is to be 
used. They find it easier to calculate with the 
actual money than with figures. It is well enough 
if they cannot do better, but it is primitive. I 
suppose that some six or seven thousand years 
ago, it was the latest thing in account keeping. 
No woman wants to be as far behind the style 
as that. 

Accounts kept in figures have several obvious ad- 
vantages. The symbol of five thousand dollars — 
$5,000 — takes less room than that amount in money, 
and is no temptation to a thief. Another advantage 
is, that these symbols of money do not have to 
be paid out, but remain in a book, and furnish 
a record of just what has been bought and 
what money remains. They also make it clear 
to the owner of the money whether she has had 



90 HOUSEKEEPING 

what she most needed or not. That is one 
of the reasons accounts are so disagreeable; they 
often say, "You made a fool of yourself that 
time." 

There are two sides in accounts, which are usually 
represented by opposite pages in a book. The 
right-hand page is the Credit side; the left hand 
page is the Debit side. On the right hand, or Credit, 
page are written the sums of money we have or 
acquire. Credit is related to the word creed. 
The reason for this relationship is, that a credit 
page represents how much we may be believed 
in financially; and to what amount people be- 
lieved in us who paid us for work; and to what 
amount people believed in us who gave us gifts 
in money. On the left-hand, or Debit, page 
are written the sums of money we have paid 
out. The word debit is related to due and duty 
and devoir. Therefore, on this page go the 
amounts which have been due to others for the 
things which we have had, and which it has 
been our duty to pay because we have had these 
things. If we are honourable people, we will do our 
devoir in this matter. 

At the end of a day, or a week, or a month, as 
seems best, the account is balanced. This word 




The Account Book 



Jfhotugraph by Helen W. CooKe 



THE ACCOUNTS 91 

balanced is a metaphor. By its means the credit 
and the debit pages are changed into the pans of 
a pair of scales, and the account is balanced when 
they hang even. That is, when the items on the 
debit page add up to the same amount that the 
items on the credit page add up to, the account 
balances. But suppose the pages do not add up to 
the same amount — they rarely do, and they rarely 
should — What then ? Then the metaphor of the 
balance suggests what to do. If one scalepan is 
lighter than the other, put a weight into it. If the 
debit side is lighter, that is, if it is less than the 
credit side, add on the amount which will make 
it even with the credit side, and write beside that 
amount, *' Balance." In that case, there is a little 
money yet unspent, and when the next two pages 
of the accounts are begun this money yet unspent 
is put down at the head of the credit page like this: 

Balance on hand $2.39 

If, on the contrary, the credit side is less than 
the debit side, add the balance there. This 
means that something has been bought which 
has not been paid for, and the meaning of 
another word related to debit becomes intrusive 
— debt. Debt is sometimes a temporary necessity 



92 HOUSEKEEPING 

— like oxygen pumped into lungs which can no 
longer pump for themselves; sometimes it is a 
calamity, sometimes it is a disgrace; and it is 
always dangerous. 

Two pages of an account such as a girl might 
keep of her personal expenses, when balanced at 
the end of a week, look like this: — 



1909 


Cash 


Dr. 


1909 


Cash 


Cr. 


July 1 

" 3 
" 4 
" 5 

" 6 
.. 7 


Veil 


2 
11 


50 

20 
00 
25 
10 
75 
20 
10 
15 


July 1 
" 3 


Bal. on hand 

Allowance 

Birthday 


10 
5 


25 
00 
00 


Soda 


Gloves 


Church 


Carfare 

Shampoo 

Postage 


Carfare 

Balance 


15 


25 


15 


25 



The person to whom this account belongs has 
a balance on hand of $11.15 to put at the 
head of the next credit page. She is evidently 
an exemplary person for she has spent just 
about a fourth of her money in a fourth of the 
month. 

One would think that simple household accounts 
might be kept like this personal cash-account. 
They could, except that it is desirable, almost neces' 
sary, that household accounts should be divided 



THE ACCOUNTS 93 

into departments. The departments will be those 
which have been decided upon in the plan of 
expenditure, such as food, clothes, fuel, savings, 
etc. There are several ways in which accounts 
can be kept in departments. Two or three of the 
simplest are suggested here. The rule for selecting 
a method is, use the one which confuses you 
least. 

One method is, to begin in different parts of an 
account-book, accounts for each department like 
the simple cash-account above. It is convenient 
to have an indexed book, or else to paste slips on the 
pages where each account begins, which will stick 
out beyond the leaves and indicate by a word or an 
initial what department will be found there. The 
book should be one made for accounts, for then it 
will be ruled correctly. In each place where a depart- 
ment begins, write the name of the department at 
the head of opposite pages. On the credit page put 
down the amount allotted to this department for a 
week or month. This amount is copied from the 
plan of expenditure, which should be written down 
in the beginning or end of the book. On the debit 
page write the names of the items for which the 
money is spent and the dates. It is safer to balance 
house-accounts once a week. This prevents the 



94 HOUSEKEEPING 

use of more than the week's allowance, or if it has 
been necessary to use more, this serves as a warning 
to spend less than the allowance the next week. 
Below is a brief, two-weeks' account for the Clothes 
Department. 



1909 


Clothes 


Dr. 


1909 


Clothes 


Cr, 


May 1 
.. 3 

" 5 

" 7 


Hat 


8 

5 
11 


00 
20 
00 
80 


May 1 


Month's allowance 


25 


00 


Buttons 


Shoes 


Balance 


25 


00 


25 


00 


May 8 

" 12 
« >> 

" 14 


Thread 


2 
3 
6 


30 
00 
00 
50 


May 8 


Bal. on hand 


11 


80 


Silk 


Socks 


Balance 


11 


80 


11 


80 



If it should happen that one department has to 
help another department, put the amount down 
on the credit page as : From X — Department — 
$10.00; just as the birthday present is put down 
in the personal account. 

Here is another method, which is easy to 
understand, but tends to become clumsy if the 
details are many. For this, one should have 
a book with an unusually large page, and wider 
than it is high. Rule it like this form below. 



THE ACCOUNTS 95 

It saves confusion if the vertical rulings are 
done in red ink. 



1909 


Fuel 


Groceries 


Meat 


Clothes 


Carfare 


Church 


Wages 


Aug. 1 


6 
6 


00 
30 

30 


1 

1 
4 


00 
60 

72 

20 

68 

20 


1 

1 
4 


98 
10 

60 

90 
58 


3 

1 

4 


00 

15 
00 

15 


1 


20 
10 
20 
10 
10 
10 
25 

05 


1 
1 


35 

00 
35 


5 
5 


00 
00 


" 2 


" 3 


" 4 


" 5 


" 6 


" 7 


Week's 
Total 



At the end of the week, the amount at the foot 
of each of these columns should be compared with 
the weekly amount for that department allowed 
in the plan of expenditure. If the week's total is 
more than the allowance, the amount it has exceeded 
should be put down in red ink at the head of the 
column for the next week. This will serve as a 
reminder that when that column is added up, it 
should be possible to add in the red number without 
exceeding the week's allowance for that department. 

This method has the disadvantage that it does not 
record the items for which the money was spent. It 
is practicable, however, especially for a housekeeper 
who only manages the part of the income devoted 



96 HOUSEKEEPING 

to the food supply. Often, in this case, items can 
be obtained, if desired, from the little books of the 
butcher or the grocer in which purchases are charged 
for a week or a month. 

This method does not show the credit side of the 
accounts. The previous method has a credit side, 
but it is theoretical. That is, the amounts on the 
credit pages were taken from the plan, they are not 
a record of actual checks or amounts of money in 
which the income was received. This defect in 
these methods must be remedied. 

It can be done by devoting a page of the account 
book to the dates on which, and the amounts in which, 
the actual credits come in. They will be salary, 
wages, interest on investments, gifts, etc.; or the 
sum of money from the business which supports the 
family, which at stated times is deposited in a bank 
or given into the hands of the housekeeper for the 
living expenses. It is necessary to see that these 
things come in regularly ; if they do the housekeeping 
plan may safely remain unchanged. If they decrease, 
a way must quickly be found to lessen the expenses; 
if they increase, one must decide slowly what is the 
wisest thing to do with the surplus. 

If this way of recording actual credits does not 
seem convenient, a general account can be kept to 



THE ACCOUNTS 97 

supplement the detailed accounts. It will be well 
to have a small account book especially for this 
purpose. Two of its pages will look like the example 
below. The items on the debit page are gathered 
from detailed accounts such as have been described. 
Completed for a month, it should be balanced as 
any account is balanced. 



1909 


General Ace. 


Dr. 


1909 


General Ace. 


Cr. 


Jan. 1 
" 3 
" 31 

« « 


Savings for Jan. . . 
Rent " " .. 
Clothes " " .. 
Food " " .. 
Fuel " " .. 


5 
35 

20 

38 

8 


00 
00 
00 
00 
00 


Jan. 1 
" 15 

" 25 


Salary 


125 
15 

10 


00 
00 

00 


Interest on 

(investment) 

Extra work 



Many people keep no accounts except in their 
checkbooks. That is, they write down carefully 
therein the date and source of every check deposited ; 
and on the stub of each check drawn they write the 
purpose for which the money is to be used. This 
method is much better than no account keeping, 
but it is hardly detailed enough for a house account 
in which there are many items too small to be paid 
by check. After every three or four checks there 
is apt to be one marked "Incidentals," or "General 
Expenses." Into these indefinite checks often go 
the trip the family meant to take, the table linen 
they meant to buy, the savings they meant to put 



98 HOUSEKEEPING 

away, and at the end of a year it is impossible to say 
what they had instead. 

Unless purchases are always paid for in cash, 
charge-accounts will have to have a place in the 
house account book. Some people have passbooks 
kept by the baker and the butcher and the grocer, 
and pay these accounts weekly. Others have charge- 
accounts with all their tradespeople and pay their 
bills monthly. If one has a charge-account with a 
firm, purchases made from them should invariably 
be charged. Paying for one purchase, and charging 
the next makes a tangle which neither the purchaser 
nor the shopkeeper can hope to prevent. 

When purchases are charged, it is well to open 
a little account with the firm in the house account 
book. Write the name of the firm at the head of 
two opposite pages. On the debit side write the 
purchases, their dates and prices. On the credit 
side, write the dates and amounts of any payments 
made to the firm, because on those amounts is based 
the firm's belief in their customer. Such accounts 
may often take the place of the separate accounts 
kept for the departments of expenditure. The 
butcher's account will be the meat department; 
the coal and wood dealer's account will be the fuel 
department; etc. 



THE ACCOUNTS 99 

When purchases are charged it is easier to buy 
more than one can pay for, than it is when they are 
paid for in cash. This is the cause of the objection 
which some people have to "charging." 

It is very needful to have a fixed time every day 
for attending to the housekeeping accounts. The 
best time is immediately after the orders for the day 
have been given; or immediately after the house- 
keeper returns from market. It is well to have a 
little scratch-pad hung up in the kitchen, and another 
on a desk in the living room, and another upstairs, on 
which expenditures made at irregular times can be 
jotted down. The used slips can be torn off each 
day, and the items put down in the book at the regu- 
lar time for the accounts. 

Accounts balanced once a week are a little trouble 
once a week; those kept by the month are a large 
trouble once a month. Accounts balanced weekly 
are less apt to have mistakes in them; and they 
are a more frequent warning against living beyond 
one's means. 

To a young housekeeper wishing to look into 
the matter of account keeping, I would recommend 
an interesting little book by Professor Charles Waldo 
Haskins, called " How to Keep Household Accounts." 
It is agreeable as well as useful. I wish, also, to say. 



100 HOUSEKEEPING 

in this connection, that the methods of keeping 
household accounts suggested in this book are neither 
professional nor authoritative; they are merely 
simple ways in which accounts may be correctly 
kept. 

Not long ago, I made bold to ask an interesting 
and successful business man if he kept detailed 
accounts. He took out of an inside pocket a worn, 
narrow-paged diary. In it, under each date, was 
recorded every cent he spent — even to cigars and 
organ grinders. He showed it as if he did not quite 
like to, and yet as if he were determined to stand 
up for it — somewhat as a man acknowledges an 
unpopular conviction. He said, "It seems awfully 
close — no, I mean it seems awfully careful, but 
I want to know/' 

You may guess what it was he wanted to know. 



IV 

THE SCHEDULE 

IN MAKING and using a housework sched- 
ule the housekeeper has a narrow path to 
tread, between chaos on the one hand and 
slavery on the other. 

If the idea of a housework schedule appeals to 
her, it would be wise for her to make as slight 
a schedule and be as little bound by it, as 
possible. If, on the contrary, she feels sympathy 
with the woman who thought it would be more 
interesting to do the washing on a different 
day each week, she should by all means have 
a rather detailed schedule and faithfully keep 
to it. 

A work schedule saves the time and strain which, 
without it, would be expended each day in deciding 
what was to be done; it prevents those who do the 
work or help with it from waiting round to be told 
what to do ; and it keeps one day from being too hard 
and the next too easy. But we must not have a 
schedule which makes the accomplishment of a 

101 



102 HOUSEKEEPING 

certain amount of housework in a given time seem 
a more important duty than the little pleasant acts 
which make the comfort and pleasure of a home. 
If the man of the house wants his wife or daughter 
to walk to the car with him after breakfast, she 
should be able to go without feeling anxious or 
preoccupied. The coming of an unexpected guest 
should not be thought a torment and a calamity 
because it disorders a schedule. When a small 
head is thrust under one's elbow and a small voice 
says, " 'Want to be loved now," confusion to any- 
thing which inclines us to say, "Run away, you 
bother me." 

A household run on a strict schedule becomes 
an institution, not a home; on the other hand, 
a household in which the work is done at any 
time or no time is neither clean, restful nor knit 
together with the bonds of mutual service and 
mutual compliance. 

Housework is some of it daily, and some of it 
periodical. Bedmaking is daily; sweeping is peri- 
odical. There is also work which may be done by 
the workers in the house, or by others coming from 
without. In one family the laundry work, bread 
making, window cleaning, jHoor polishing and the 
like will be done by those in the house; in another, 



THE SCHEDULE 103 

these things will be done out of the house, or by 
people who come in to do them. 

(a) DAILY WORK 

The following is a list of daily work in an average 
house. Besides these things some piece of periodi- 
cal work is done each day. 

Fire made or made up. 

Shades rolled up; windows opened a few minutes; suggestions of 
yesterday removed. 

(In summer, veranda arranged.) 

Breakfast prepared, served and cleared away. 

Pantry and kitchen put in order. 

Menu made and orders given. 

Downstairs rooms put in order. 

Bedrooms put in order. 

Bathroom put in order. 

Accounts. 

Preparations for second and third meals. 

Second meal served and cleared away. 

Rest. 

Third meal prepared, served and cleared away. 

Outside affairs usually decide the time at which 
these activities are performed. Meal hours in most 
cases depend on the work hours of some of the family, 
and on the meal hours depend the times when other 
things are done. Who shall do the work depends 
on the number of workers, the occupations which 
they have beside housework, and the periodical 
work of the day. 



104 HOUfSEKEEPING 

If there is one woman in the house, she must go 
through this list of things, doing each slightly or 
elaborately, as she is able and as they require. On 
the days when there is washing or sweeping or 
baking to do she will have to abbreviate other things. 
Upstairs and down she will merely put things in 
their places and remove visible dust; she will leave 
the table set until after luncheon, on washdays until 
after dinner; she will have planned the meals for 
this day the day before, and she will hurry all the 
work a little. i 

In a house where there is a mistress and a maid, 
the mistress will pick out from the daily work the 
things she wishes to do. She will perhaps set the 
table, put the house in order, plan the meals, go to 
market and make her accounts before luncheon. 
On washing and ironing days, if no extra person 
comes in to help, she will add to this the chamber- 
woik and perhaps the washing of the breakfast 
dishes. Probably on those mornings she will not 
go to market. 

When there are two maids in the house, the second 
will do the work suggested in the former case for the 
mistress on a washday, with the exception of the 
menu and the accounts, and with the addition of 
waiting on the table, washing the dishes, and some 



THE SCHEDULE 105 

preparations for the meals which are not actual 
cooking. 

When there is a third maid the upstairs part of 
the house will be her domain, and she will probably 
do some personal services for the mistress. In a 
large family she will help to wait on the table, and 
to wash the dinner dishes. After breakfast she will 
be busy with upstairs work and some sweeping, 
and after luncheon she will rest and dress and then 
answer the doorbell and the telephone during the 
time that the waitress is resting and dressing. 

A fourth maid is usually a laundress, a fifth 
would do the rougher and simpler part of the kitchen 
work, and a sixth — but there, a housekeeper with 
five or six maids will not need suggestions from this 
book. 

In households where there are several servants, 
their meals are added to the list of daily work. These 
come before those served to the family with some- 
times the exception of dinner. When this exception 
is made, *'tea" keeps the time between luncheon and 
dinner from being too long. It has always seemed 
to me that separate meals should be arranged for 
as soon as a family decide to keep a servant whose 
regular duty it is to wait on the table. A particularly 
tangible shadow lies upon a meal which is served by 



106 HOUSEKEEPING 

some one who after a long morning's work may be 
faint and hungry for the food she brings to you. 

{b) PERIODICAL WORK 

The following is a list of periodical work for an 
average house. 

Washing. 

Ironing. 

Sorting and mending linen and clothes. 

Sweeping and dusting. 

Bread baking. 

Thorough cleaning of the kitchen. 

Cleaning garbage can, and surroundings. 

Cleaning refrigerator and food receptacles. 

Arrangements for days out. 

Preparations for Saturday and Simday. 



Polishing furniture and floors. 
Cleaning silver. 

Cleaning of linen closet and others. 
Care of cellar. 

When can these things be done, and who is to do 
them ? 

We will consider the laundry work first. This 
should be the periodical work for two days of the 
week; if it runs over it crowds other things, and 
indicates that the wash is larger than we may have 
it with the present number and quality of workers. 
On the days devoted to laundry work, the daily 



THE SCHEDULE 107 

work should be as brief and the meals as simple as 
possible. Of course, when there is a woman in the 
house, or who comes into the house especially to 
do washing and ironing, the usual schedule can be 
adhered to. 

The day on which the washing is done is a matter 
of choice. It is traditional to wash on Monday, 
but some people say that Tuesday is better. If 
a woman comes in to do the washing it must be done 
when she can come. The advocates of washing 
on Monday say that as it is the longest and heaviest 
weekly job, it is best got out of the way as early in 
the week as possible ; that the work of the week seems 
to wait round until the laundry work is finished; 
they say, too, that it is easier to wash on Monday 
because other people are washing. 

The advocates of Tuesday say that as more of 
the family are at home on Sunday and as the regular 
clearing up is not done, the house needs especial 
attention on Monday; also, that they do not like 
putting clothes to soak the last thing Sunday night. 

If circumstances leave one free to choose the day, 
it is as well to try each long enough to get used to it, 
and then to decide oq the one which proves easiest 
for every one concerned. 

In the household with one maid, the mistress should 



108 HOUSEKEEPING 

help on the days the laundry is done with the daily 
work and in some cases with the laundry itself. 
In the two-maid household, the cook washes, the 
waitress assists, and the mistress frequently does some 
of the daily work. In the three-maid household it 
is possible for each to do her usual part of the daily 
work and give some assistance with the laundry. 

The sorting and mending of the clean clothes is 
the work of the mistress or of an upstairs maid. 
The sorting should be done when the wash is fin- 
ished. The mending, if heavy, often has to wait 
for odd times. 

The next heaviest periodical work to the washing 
is the weekly cleaning. In a household with two 
maids or less, the cleaning should not be the peri- 
odical work on more than two days, one for up- 
stairs, one for down. The living room and the dining 
room will probably have to be thoroughly cleaned 
each week, but the other rooms can usually be done 
in alternate weeks with the help of the daily setting 
in order and the careful use of a sweeper two or 
three times in the interval. It is more immaculate 
and more agreeable to have all the rooms thoroughly 
cleaned each week, but in a fairly large house with 
two women to do the work this ideal may become 
a grievous burden. 



THE SCHEDULE 109 

In houses in which there is an ample number of 
servants, the cleaning of the downstairs rooms, 
daily and periodical, is often done before breakfast. 
It is the ideal way of accomplishing this disturbing 
and uncomfortable job, but it cannot be so done 
unless there are enough workers in the house to 
divide the work into distinct departments. 

Baking, cleaning the refrigerator and food recep- 
tacles, cleaning the kitchen and looking after the 
garbage can is the work of the cook. If there is 
another maid in the house, the cook has the four 
days of the week not used for the laundry work 
when she may do these things. If she is the maid- 
of-all-work, she will have the two days left from 
the laundry and sweeping in which to do them and 
many others. 

Bread baking is usually done twice or three times 
a week. Cake baking, nowadays, is an irregular 
performance. As making bread is not a day's work, 
it can be combined with other pieces of work, pref- 
erably with those which are done in the kitchen. It 
combines nicely with cleaning the refrigerator and 
food receptacles because one of these is for bread 
and should be perfectly fresh for the new batch. A 
careful housewife sometimes makes the cleaning of 
the refrigerator her own work, but even so, she will 



110 HOUSEKEEPING 

appoint a time for doing it. A good refrigerator 
need be cleaned only once or twice a week, a poor 
one may have to be done oftener. 

A garbage can should be cleaned as often as it 
is emptied, and should with its surroundings be 
watched all the time, lest the cover is left off or any 
scraps or splashes are left outside to draw flies and 
make disagreeable odours. 

A kitchen in which much work is done needs a 
thorough weekly cleaning. People are apt to do this 
on Saturday, but there will be many households in 
which it will be unwise to do so. If the master of 
the house has a half holiday on Saturday, and the 
mistress of the house does the housework, the work 
of Saturday morning must be only the daily work 
and such preparations as will leave Saturday after- 
noon and Sunday as free from work as possible. 
Some extra cooking, marketing and menu making, 
some adornment of the house and laying out of fresh 
table linen will be desirable and necessary; but 
kitchen cleaning ,the changing of bed linen, or the 
making up of weekly accounts, should be appointed 
for some other day in the week. 

If the housewife has servants to help her, she 
can have more work done on Saturday, but even 
then, she will guard against having things done which 



THE SCHEDULE 111 

make the house seem unrestful, or which occupy 
her. 

Arrangements for "days out" are merely adjust- 
ments by which one person's work is done by others. 
If there is one maid, the mistress takes her place; 
if two, one does the necessary work of both, the mis- 
tress helping a little. For the day a maid goes out 
no periodical work belonging to her department 
must be appointed. "Sundays out," like the days, 
are merely an adjustment of duties to allow for 
fewer workers. 

Some of the periodical work is much more occa- 
sional than that already mentioned. This must be 
fitted in, sometimes by leaving more frequent work 
undone for one day, but usually by appointing it 
for a day when there happens to be a little less to 
do than usual. The silver, for instance, usually 
need not be done more than once a fortnight or 
once a month, and can be fitted into a morning 
when there is no sweeping, or into a rainy Monday. 
Other infrequent work can be managed in the 
same way. 

In simple households a detailed written schedule 
is not necessary perhaps nor desirable, unless it be 
for periodical work and the "days out." For these 
a schedule like the one herewith might be made. 



112 HOUSEKEEPING 

This one is for two maids and includes some infre- 
quent work. 





Monday 


Tuesday 


Wednesday 


Thursday 


Fnday 


Saturday 


Sunday 


COOK 


Washing 


Ironing 


Bake 
Clean re- 
frig., etc. 
Take wait- 
ress's work 


Day out 


Put cellar 
in order 


Bake. 

Clean 

kitchen 


Sunday 
out 


WAITRESS 


Washing 


Ironing 


Day out 


Sweep 
upstairs 


Sweep 
down- 
stairs 


Clean 

silver 


Take 
cook's 
work 


MISTRESS 


Help 
a little 


Help 
a little 


Sort and 

mend wash 

Help with 

work 


Help 
with 
work 


Help 
a little 


Get out 

clean 
linen and 
set closet 

in order 


Help 
with 
work 



(c) SOME GENERAL PRINCIPLES 



One or two general remarks about schedules are 
necessary before the subject can be closed. 

As far as possible heavy, dirty work should be done 
in the morning, the workers are more able to do it 
then, and besides, the cook does not wish to do such 
things when getting the dinner, nor the waitress when 
she should be dressed for the afternoon, nor the mis- 
tress at the social time of the day. 

In making a work schedule, a savings fund is as 
necessary as in making a plan of expenditure. If 
every one in the house is doing as much as is possible, 
there is no allowance for accident, or illness, or 
unexpected demands. A little strength which is not 



THE SCHEDULE 113 

nerves should be left in you and in your handmaidens 
at the end of the day. Housework extends over an 
exceedingly long day. At present, the only way 
to remedy this seems to be to arrange that each 
worker get a little rest some time in the day. I have 
put this as a necessary item in the table of daily 
work. 

If no savings fund of strength is possible, more 
workers are needed, or better workers; or, if 
this is impossible, the style of living should be 
modified until it is appropriate to the force of 
workers. 

The schedule is not the important thing, but the 
work; and there are things more important even than 
the work. For instance, a reasonable degree of 
liberty for the whole household. 

The family, unless they take part in the work, 
should not be conscious of the work schedule. It is 
a framework to be carefully draped; a new kind 
of family skeleton to be kept in the closet as carefully 
as the old kind. It is necessary because it makes 
easy, natural regularity possible, and without it, as 
we have said, there is neither character, nor peace, 
nor mutual service in a home. 

The housework must be done — well and regu- 
larly done — and to accomplish this, days must be 



114 HOUSEKEEPING 

alike, and weeks must be alike, and months and 
years alike. But they must be as the leaves on 
a tree are — alike to the casual glance, yet really 
somewhat different because capable of infinite 
adaptability. 



V 

POSSESSIONS 

THE time and strength necessary for house- 
work, and the comfort and happiness result- 
ing from the work depend much upon some- 
thing which housekeepers have to a great extent 
the power to control. I mean the quantity and 
kind of things they have in their houses. 

Much time and money and weary labour would 
be saved, much comfort and loveliness would be 
gained if we could persuade ourselves to follow 
William Morris's rule: 

"Have nothing in your rooms which you do not 
think to be beautiful and know to be useful." 

Were this rule suddenly put in practice, what 
a bundling out of rubbish would ensue. A Bonfire 
of Vanities would rise in no time, built of little tables 
and pedestals, cushions and bows, curtains, vases, 
pictures that no future generations would call us 
vandals for destroying, fringes and ruffles, souvenirs 
of travel, broken and mended objects from the top 
shelves of closets, bronze and china statuettes, and 

115 



116 HOUSEKEEPING 

that whole miserable race of blotters which do not 
blot, book-racks which faint under the weight of 
books, pen-wipers which would be insulted if they 
were inked, collapsible waste-baskets always in a 
state of collapse, holders that hold nothing, cases 
that fit nothing, impervious pin cushions! 

May the smoke of them ascend ! 

One would think that this rule of use and beauty 
were austere enough, yet many people, before they 
acquire even a useful or a beautiful object, must 
consider whether there is room for it in their home, 
whether the members of the household have time 
and strength to take care of it, and whether it is 
appropriate to their possessions and to their way of 
living. 

The amount of space we have about us seriously 
effects our health of body and mind. The more 
furniture there is in a room, the less air space there 
is. The sense of oppression one feels in a room 
crowded with furniture is not imagination, there 
is literally much less air to breathe. It is also not 
merely an idea that a house full of ornaments and 
pictures is not restful to live in. One knows what 
matchless weariness results from hours spent in a 
museum; it is caused by continually readjusting 
one's eyes, and thoughts, and emotions to an endless 



POSSESSIONS 117 

succession of things. A room crowded with orna- 
ments and pictures is a miniature museum. With 
familiarity one may cease to see the individual 
objects the room contains, but this is indifference, 
not peace. 

Those who have not done housework with their 
own brains and bodies cannot realize how many 
thousands of times every object in a house has to be 
touched and moved merely for the sake of cleanli- 
ness and order. It seems a small matter whether 
there are six pictures in a room or eight, whether 
flower vases are kept in the china closet or on the 
tops of book shelves and tables, whether there are 
five little fal-lals on a mantelshelf or twenty-five; 
but I hardly think it is a small matter whether a 
woman spend a half-hour with her children, or 
out of doors, or reading a book, or spends it in 
dusting tormenting trifles. These considerations are 
equally important when the work is done by maids; 
there are always enough useful things to do in a 
house to fill reasonable work hours. 

One must ask, then, even when a useful or beauti- 
ful object is in question, Have I room for it.^ and. 
Is it worth the time and strength needed to care 
for it.P And then one more question: Is this 
thing I desire suitable.? That is, will it make the 



118 HOUSEKEEPING 

rest of the furniture which cannot now be renewed 
look shabby ? Shall I feel that it is too good for the 
sun to shine upon, or the family to use? Will it 
set up a standard which I cannot keep up to with- 
out feverish effort? 

In order to select or to weed out possessions in 
a reasonable way, attachments have to be kept in 
check; one must keep in mind that the family are 
more worthy of regard than the family chairs, and 
one must have such respect for oneself as a spirit- 
ual and intellectual creature that one will not fall 
in love with a silver- service or a set of ancient plates. 
I can think of few things more humiliating than the 
fact that families can be divided by old furniture; 
that sisters can be estranged by silver sugar-tongs; 
that lives can be spoiled, hearts broken and fortunes 
spent in the service of possessions which should exist 
only for the temporary comfort and happiness of 
their owners. 

All this does not mean that our homes should be 
bare as hospitals, and ugly as barracks, and that, 
if the furniture is shabby, we ought not to have the 
one beautiful picture, or the good piano, or the 
hoard of books, which may be the treasure of the 
family. Nor does it mean that we ought not to love 
our household goods. 



POSSESSIONS 119 

We want our homes as complete in comforts and 
appliances as we can reasonably afford. We want 
them lovely to look at. And we shall be all the 
better if we have an affection for every stick they 
contain. Scrooge hugged his own bed-curtains, 
because the sight of them assured him that he was 
at home. For the same reason we love the things 
we live with, and the place where we live. We like 
to come back after an absence and find the same 
things in the same places, and get an extra welcome 
from every one of them. 

This is incidentally an argument against frequently 
changing the arrangement of the furniture, as some 
housewives think it economical and diverting to do. 
Such changes destroy that settled, established look 
which is homelike, and very comfortable to live with. 
Do you know about the man who was not afraid 
of burglars when he got up at night, but was awfully 
afraid of bureaus and rocking-chairs which his wife 
found a new place for every week ? 

We naturally become attached to things which 
we like, and which we have taken thought to get, 
and which we have looked after year after year. 
Heirlooms are the result of such care and affection 
and companionship continuing year after year, 
generation after generation until the objects on 



120 HOUSEKEEPING 

which this care has been expended seem to become 
a part of ourselves and our lives, until they seem to 
have absorbed some of the personality and affection 
of those who no longer dwell with them, nor with us. 
But when possessions begin to seem something 
more than tables and tea-cups and silver spoons, 
have a care — they're not. 



VI 

CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 

EVERY house contains a great variety of 
objects and substances. If these are to 
be kept clean and in good condition, one 
must know what they are and what to do for 
them. 

The Ceiling. — In the first place each room has a 
ceiling. Ceilings are usually plain and light 
coloured, because they are not easy to look at and 
because they are reflectors. They are not orna- 
mented on account of our necks; they are not made 
dark coloured on account of the light bills. 

Ceilings for the most part need little care. When 
the room is cleaned, they should be wiped, either 
with a long-handled mop with a wool head — dry — 
or with a broom in a bag. The former is harder to 
get but is better, because the combined length of 
the ordinary broom and the ordinary woman is not 
usually enough to reach the ceiling effectually and 
without strain. Besides, many brooms are too heavy 
to use above one's head. Such wiping nicely done 

121 



122 HOUSEKEEPING 

is all the regular care a ceiling needs, whether it is 
whitewashed or frescoed. 

The Walls. — Walls are panelled, or painted, or 
calcimined, or covered with fabric or paper. Wood, 
paint and calcimine are considered cleaner than 
other coverings, but all can be kept up to an ordinary 
standard of cleanliness. 

Panelling should be carefully wiped with the wool- 
headed mop used for the ceiling, or with a cloth 
where it is within reach. If the wood is dark and 
polished, it may now and again be rubbed with a 
little good furniture polish; if it is light or unpol- 
ished it is better to content oneself with wiping off 
the dust. 

Fabric-covered walls should be cleaned once or 
twice a year with a vacuum cleaner. If this is not 
possible, they may be as often brushed. This must 
not be done violently, but carefully, and preferably 
with a hair broom — a white hair broom such as 
one uses for clothes, if the wall covering is especially 
handsome or delicate in colour. 

Painted walls may be wiped with a dry or damp- 
ened mop, or they may be washed with soap and 
water, or even with disinfectant, should this happen 
to be desirable. 

Calcimined walls may be wiped only with a soft 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 123 

mop, or very gently with a broom in a bag. Mop 
or broom bag must often be shaken out of the win- 
dow, otherwise the walls will be smirched or clouded. 
Very little in the way of restoration or cleaning 
should be attempted with calcimine, for it almost 
invariably makes a bad matter worse. Spots such 
as are made by hands or heads can sometimes be 
removed by rubbing them with a piece of dry bread, 
or with some corn meal. It is safe to experiment 
with any dry remedy; but a wet remedy will always 
fail. Even calcimine itself, put over a spot or a 
scar, will leave a mark. 

Papered walls may be wiped with a dry mop, or 
a broom in a bag. They are not as easily smirched 
as calcimine, but one must frequently shake out 
of doors, or else change any brush or cloth used for 
wiping walls. 

If you need a reason for wiping walls and ceilings, 
look at the mop or the cover of the broom with which 
you have done the work. Dirt is the enemy of 
health and loveliness. 

Woodwork, — When woodwork is cleaned, all 
cracks, ornaments and irregularities should first be 
gone over with a small, soft brush. A flat brush 
such as is used for varnishing is good. 

If the woodwork is not polished, it should next 



124 HOUSEKEEPING 

be carefully — that is, every inch of it — wiped and 
rubbed with a soft, dry cloth, or if the room is exceed- 
ingly dusty, with a cloth very slightly dampened. 
Any sort of oil, or polish, or even water is apt to 
darken or spot unpolished wood. In the case of 
baseboards and window ledges, however, a little 
dressing of some kind should occasionally be rubbed 
into them, for they have to be defended from 
dampness in the one case, and hard usage in the 
second. A little of the polish used for floors will 
do very well for this purpose. 

If woodwork is polished, the dust should be wiped 
off after the cracks have been cleaned with the little 
brush. It should then be rubbed briskly with a 
flannel or soft cotton cloth dampened with good 
furniture polish. Kerosene, which is usually at hand, 
is inexpensive and excellent for this and other 
purposes of the kind. But use this or polish sparingly. 

Painted woodwork should ordinarily be dusted with 
a little brush and then wiped just as if it were hard 
wood. Once in a while, it should be wiped with 
slightly warm suds made with mild soap. It should 
not be soaped nor made very wet, and should be 
wiped dry as soon as it is washed. Spots which 
will not yield to this cleaning can be removed with 
alcohol or kerosene. 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 125 

Floors. — Some people will tell you that uncarpeted 
floors are a great deal of trouble, and some will say 
that they are very little. Perhaps part of the trouble 
which they seem to give is due to the fact that people 
keep their floors cleaner than their carpets. Dust 
shows, as we say, on a bare floor; it lies under furni- 
ture and blows about in fluffs. If the floor is car- 
peted, that very same dust, also the dust of other 
days when no sweeping is done, sinks into the 
carpet and assists in making colds and throat dis- 
orders and a stuffy smell. If we really minded dust, 
we would mind it just as much buried in the carpet 
as rolling round in fluffs. But we don't mind dust, 
we mind being thought dusty. If we have the same 
standard of cleanliness for the carpet as for the floor, 
the floor is the easier to care for. 

Uncarpeted floors are usually finished with oil, 
shellac, stain, wax or some other smooth, preserva- 
tive substance. Floors thus finished require three 
kinds of care; refinishing, polishing and dusting. 

Dusting. — Dusting should be done, if possible, 
every day. It does not require much time or strength. 
With a good mop or a broom in a bag, floors can be 
as quickly and lightly dusted as polished desks or 
tables. 

Polishing. — The frequency with which floors 



126 HOUSEKEEPING 

require polishing depends on the finish, the amount 
of wear, and the standard of appearance required. 
Some people polish them once a week, some once 
a fortnight, some once a month; others have their 
floors refinished twice a year and do nothing to them 
in the intervals except dust them. 

Waxed floors are polished differently from those 
finished with oil or shellac. 

To polish a waxed floor, first remove all dust with 
a hair broom, a wool mop, or a broom in a bag. 
Then rub carefully and energetically every inch of 
the floor with a heavy polisher until the polish is 
restored. The best polishers are costly, but others, 
less expensive, are made of strips of felt or chamois. 
They can also be home-made from a block of heavy 
wood with a hole bored diagonally in the top large 
enough to hold an old broom handle or a mop- 
stick. The bottom of the block must have several 
thicknesses of heavy material tacked over it. Old 
flannel, old bath towels, and old carpet are good for 
this purpose. 

Floors not finished with wax are polished with oil 
or some patent polish. Many patent mixtures for 
this purpose are exceedingly good. Besides these, 
two parts linseed oil to one part kerosene is a good 
polish; also one-half turpentine to one-half crude 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 127 

oil. Kerosene used by itself both cleans and pol- 
ishes floors, but its odour is an objection to its use. 

As in the cases of the waxed floor, all dust must 
be removed before the polishing begins. When 
this is accomplished, rub the floor with a soft thick 
cloth dampened with polish. There should always 
be much rubbing and little oil. A quart of floor 
polish should last months. If by mistake too much 
oil is applied, rub the floor again with a dry cloth. 
When finished, it should feel smooth to the hand, 
not oily. 

If oily cloths are kept from one time to another, 
they should not be shut up closely in a box or closet 
for they are liable to spontaneous combustion. 

Reflnishing. — Floors are refinished by receiving a 
new coat of finish. Before this is put on, the floors 
should be thoroughly cleaned. This cleaning is 
well done with sandpaper and turpentine. Every 
board must be rubbed in the direction of the grain 
until it is entirely smooth and clean. After this the 
floor should be wiped with a dry cloth, and the finish 
applied and polished. 

When it is necessary or desirable to wash a hard- 
wood floor, it should be done just before reflnishing 
and with tepid water, soap that would not hurt 
hands nor lace and a cloth well wrung out before 



128 HOUSEKEEPING 

it is applied to the floor. Water is injurious to 
polished floors of any kind, and to waxed floors 
especially. 

If a floor receives hard wear in one or two places, 
or if something hurtful is spilled upon it, it may 
be necessary to refinish these places when the 
remainder of the floor does not need it. In such 
cases a few square feet can be done just as a whole 
floor is done. The final polishing will keep the 
place from looking like a patch. 

Rugs and Carpets. — Carpets tacked down close 
to the walls are not as clean as loose floor covering, 
and they are the chief cause of the fearful misery 
called house cleaning. Every other act necessary 
to the cleanliness of a house can be done without 
turning it upside down and driving the family to 
the club or the tavern except — taking up carpets. 
Rugs can be gathered up and taken to the lawn or 
the roof to be cleaned. The walls and floor of a 
room can be wiped within an hour. Windows can 
be washed and furniture and brasses polished with 
people sitting undisturbed in the room where it is 
being done. 

Before the possibility of unobtrusive cleaning 
had dawned on me, I was once making a visit in 
a large city house. My surprise was almost painful 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 129 

when I saw a man cleaning the windows in the 
drawing room only an hour before an afternoon 
reception. It did not mean that they had been 
forgotten, or that the house was carelessly run — 
far from it — it was merely the day for window 
cleaning and the man whose business it was to do 
it went from room to room and cleaned them, making 
no disturbance and leaving no trace. 

I make my protest against carpets for the reason 
that it is impossible to clean them in an unobtrusive 
way, and because they are the inspiring evil genius 
of cleaning done with emphasis — done, not for the 
sake of health and happiness, but for the sake of 
appearing to be a particular housekeeper. 

Nonetheless, if we have carpets they must be cared 
for. Before the sweeping is begun, something should 
be scattered over the carpet to keep the dust down. 
Some of the things used for this purpose are damp 
tea leaves, sawdust, bran, corn meal, and shreds 
of newspaper. There are also patent substances 
for the purpose. One must be careful that these 
things mentioned are damp, not wet. Tea leaves 
should be wrung out hard before they are scattered, 
and never used on any delicately coloured carpet. 
Newspaper also is not safe for very delicate colours. 

Any of these substances may be used in sweeping 



130 HOUSEKEEPING 

a tiled or painted floor; and any for an unpainted 
wooden floor except tea leaves. 

When preparing to sweep, make the room as light 
as possible. Sweep the cracks along the walls and 
the edges of the carpet first, then sweep as much of 
the room as possible in the same direction, that direc- 
tion being with the nap of the carpet, not against 
it. Sweep with short, light strokes — it is sweeping, 
not digging. When the dust is gathered into as 
small a pile as possible, take it up in a dustpan. 

After sweeping it is good to wipe the carpet with 
a cloth wrung out of warm, soapy water in which is 
a little ammonia. Turpentine is even better than 
ammonia for carpets, but not for hands. Do not 
wet the carpet, wipe it lightly and quickly, rinsing 
the cloth often, but wringing it out hard. 

One can to some extent combine this wiping pro- 
cess with sweeping by dipping one's broom now and 
then in water in which there is a little salt, ammonia 
or turpentine. Shake the broom lightly before apply- 
ing it to the carpet, or the first stroke will leave a 
wet spot. Salt, ammonia and turpentine brighten 
the colours of a carpet, and the latter two are objec- 
tionable to moths. It is better not to dampen carpets 
in any way on rainy or humid days. 

Rugs, when they cannot be carried out of the 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 131 

room, may be swept according to the directions 
for carpets and then rolled up, or folded round some 
piece of furniture difficult to move, until the floor 
has been cared for. The pleasantest and best way 
to clean rugs, however, is to take them out of doors 
and beat them on the grass or on a clothes line. 
Beat them with a furniture beater, or light cane, or 
stick, first on one side then on the other, then lay 
flat and brush the surface with a broom. Beating 
is better than shaking, both for the rug and for the 
shaker. When they are shaken, however, it is 
advisable to hold them by the side instead of the 
end; they are then less likely to tear or ravel. 

Matting should be swept with especial care for 
cracks and edges, and crosswise of the breadths as 
far as possible. It should be wiped occasionally 
with salt and water, which cleans it and keeps it 
from becoming brittle. Many people prefer to use 
a hair broom for sweeping matting. 

Shades and Curtains. — ^All the cleaning that shades 
need can be given them by drawing them down to 
their full length and dusting them first on one side 
then on the other with a short-handled mop, or a 
duster if you can reach the roller with it. The side 
next the window is the more dusty as it is the out- 
side of the roll. When the shades have been dusted 



132 HOUSEKEEPING 

they should be rolled to the top of the window until 
the cleaning of the room is finished. 

If they do not roll up tightly and at once, take 
the shade from the socket, roll it up evenly, then 
hold the flat piece of metal which projects from one 
end of the roller between your thumb and fingers 
and turn the roller round and round with the other 
hand until it is very hard to turn. See that the little 
ratchet has fitted into the notch for it in the piece 
you are holding, to prevent it from flying back when 
you let go. Then the shade is ready to be replaced 
in the sockets. Shades which fly up unexpectedly 
are wound up too tight. 

Curtains should be shaken and brushed, with a 
whisk if they are of heavy material, with a softer 
brush if they are delicate. They should then be 
put in bags made for the purpose, or folded over 
the rod and covered with a dusting sheet until the 
room is clean. 

Furniture. — Upholstered furniture should if pos- 
sible be put out on a veranda where it can be aired 
and brushed. If this is not possible it should be 
beaten or brushed when we are preparing the room 
for cleaning. All creases and tufting should be 
carefully explored with a whisk and the furniture 
afterward covered with a cloth until the other 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 133 

cleaning is finished. Furniture upholstered in leather 
should be wiped, not brushed, and occasionally 
rubbed with vinegar, and sweet oil — proportions, 
one tablespoonful vinegar to three of oil. In time 
this slightly darkens the colour of the leather, but 
it keeps it from cracking. 

On regular cleaning days polished furniture should 
have its carvings and cracks brushed out with the 
paint brush used for the woodwork of the room, and 
should then be rubbed with a very soft cloth. About 
once a month — oftener if the wear is hard, less 
often if it is easy — it should be rubbed with a good 
polish. The old furniture in France has usually 
been rubbed for generations with sweet oil and vine- 
gar, in the proportions given above for leather furni- 
fure; probably few things are better. Two of the 
polishes suggested for floors, are equally good for 
furniture : 

yi turpentine to yi crude oil. 

1 part kerosene to 2 parts linseed oil. 
Also, equal parts turpentine, linseed oil and vine- 
gar. 

I believe that the best care an amateur can give 
to a very highly polished piece of furniture like a 
piano, is to wash it, when it becomes clouded, with 
luke-warm soapsuds. The soap should be mild, 



134 HOUSEKEEPING 

good soap. Wash a bit of the furniture at a time 
and dry it carefully, using very soft cloths; when it 
has all been dried, polish it with chamois and as 
much energy as you can conscientiously spare. 

If painted furniture looks dingy, rub it with a little 
kerosene. Kerosene will usually remove spots from 
painted furniture — finger-marks from white enam- 
elled beds, for instance. 

Windows. — The woodwork of windows should be 
brushed and wiped free from dust before the washing 
of the glass begins. It is better not to use soap 
for washing windows or glass of any kind; it some- 
times clouds it, sometimes gives it a blue tinge. 
Put ammonia or borax in the water used, or else 
rub the glass with whiting, or a scouring soap which 
is not gritty. If one of these, or whiting, is used, 
it should be allowed to dry and should then be rubbed 
off with a dry cloth or a newspaper until the glass 
shines. Newspaper is as good as anything you can 
get for polishing windows. There is nothing especial 
to say about cleaning windows with water except 
wash the panes clean and dry them dry, one at a 
time, beginning with those nearest the top of the 
sash. Do not try to wash all the windows in a house 
with a pint of water and a wristband, but the oppo- 
site extreme is as bad — worse for your dwelling. 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 135 

Any method of cleaning windows by dashing quanti- 
ties of water on the panes, breaks the putty, loosens 
the glass, spoils the paint on the woodwork and 
soaks the wood itself with water. 

Mirrors should not be wet. Fly-specks and 
finger-marks can be removed with a damp cloth 
or alcohol, and the mirror polished with whiting 
and chamois. 

Pictures, also, should not be wet. The frames 
and backs may be brushed and wiped, and the glass 
cleaned with a damp cloth or with a little alcohol. 

Brass. — Brasses, such as andirons, lamps, jar- 
dinieres, candlesticks, sconces and the like must 
be divided into two classes for cleaning. Those 
things which are lacquered must only be washed 
and then polished with flannel or chamois. Any 
sort of cleaning other than this will soon remove 
the lacquer entirely. Unlacquered brass may be 
polished as energetically and severely as any sub- 
stance in the house. 

Wood ashes are a good brass polish, especially 
pine ashes. 

The bath-brick with which people clean knives 
will also clean brass. 

An old coloured woman, who lived with me once, 
polished the andirons with salt and vinegar. 



136 HOUSEKEEPING 

These things are not as quick or as easy to use as 
many patent brass cleaners which one can buy nowa- 
days. It is just as well, however, to know what one 
could do if separated from modern conveniences. 

Tiles. — Glazed tiles may be wiped with a cloth 
wrung out of warm soapsuds, but water should 
not be put directly upon them. It tends to soften 
the cement in which they are laid. Unglazed tiles 
are restored to colour and cleanliness by a rubbing 
with linseed oil. 

Lamps. — Lamps used every night need care every 
day. They should be kept full of oil for two reasons. 
One is, that if we then happen to use them for an 
unusually long time they will not burn out ; the other, 
is, that if a lamp is full of oil no space is left for 
vapours rising from the oil, which otherwise may 
become compressed in the bowl and ignite when a 
match is applied to the wick. If there is a little 
screw-topped opening in the lamp where it can be 
filled without unscrewing the burner, use that open- 
ing for filling it. The burner should not be 
unscrewed unless it must be. Great care should be 
taken not to fill lamps too full; the level of the oil 
should be just below the lower side of the little open- 
ing, otherwise the oil will ooze out on the lamp and 
catch dust and give off a disagreeable odour. 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 137 

It is better to rub off the hard burned crust of a 
wick than to cut it off. This leaves the wick more 
even and wastes it less. When it has been rubbed 
smooth and soft, see that it turns up and down easily 
and, if a round wick, that it is even. A flat wick 
should be slightly rounded, the middle being the 
highest point, like this diacritic ^-s, not this -^ one. 
To be perfectly sure, light the lamp for a moment, 
put on the chimney, and if the flame is not the right 
shape alter the wick. When this is finished, wipe 
the burner inside and out, above and below, as care- 
fully as possible. An old water-colour brush is 
good for cleaning intricate burners. 

The time when a lamp needs a new wick is a good 
lime to boil the burner. Remove the old wick and 
put the burner into some receptacle not used for 
food, with water and washing-soda: one teaspoon- 
ful soda to one quart water. Then boil it well. 
This is a good thing to do whenever a lamp smells 
or gives a poor light. If a new wick and a boiled 
burner do not help the matter, either the oil is poor 
or a new burner is necessary. 

If a new lampwick is a little too wide for a burner, 
draw out two or three strands at one side. A wick 
should fill the opening for it, however, quite closely, 
especially if it has not yet been wet. 



138 HOUSEKEEPING 

One should have a special place for cleaning 
lamps, and for keeping the oil and everything else 
used in their care. Nothing used for lamp clean- 
ing or for applying kerosene should be used for any 
other purpose. Newspaper is good for cleaning 
lamps because when the work is finished it can be 
burned. It can be used to protect the table on which 
the cleaning is done, wicks can be rubbed and 
lamps wiped with it, and nothing cleans chimneys 
so well. Chimneys polished with newspapers rarely 
have to be washed. Washing is not good for 
them, it clouds them and makes them break more 
easily. 

The catches which hold the chimney must not 
press very tightly, for this breaks the expanding 
glass; they must, though, be tight enough to 
keep the chimney from falling if the lamp is 
moved. 

When a lamp is put in its place ready for lighting, 
the wick should be just visible above the socket in 
which it moves. It should be lighted while still 
at this level, then turned higher when the chimney 
has had time to heat. When the light is to be put 
out, turn the wick down until it disappears into the 
socket. This keeps the wick from smoking 
and thereby smelling. Turning a wick down, 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 139 

however, does not always put out the flame; be 
sure that it is out before leaving the lamp for the 
night. 

Plants. — It seems not unreasonable to say that 
plants should not occupy the most agreeable win- 
dows of the living room, nor prevent the proper 
airing of the house in winter. This does not happen 
as often as it used to, but it does occasionally even 
now. In very few houses is there room for more 
than three or four plants, if it is remembered that 
the family have the first right to the light, and air, 
and window space. 

There is also the consideration that few plants 
can receive better care than many. House plants 
ought to be immaculate. They should be in neat 
pots standing in saucers or jardinieres, and should 
have all withered or unsightly leaves removed and 
the other leaves kept free from dust. If this is not 
done, they become that greatest eyesore, a degen- 
erated ornament. 

They should be put in a bathtub or sink when the 
rooms are cleaned, and sprayed and sponged and 
soaked. This helps to offset their unnatural life in 
warm, dry rooms. Plants thrive on attention. 
They love to be stirred, and watered, and sponged, 
and petted, and made much of. If we have only a 



140 HOUSEKEEPING 

few, we can treat them in this way, to their pleasure 
and our own. 

The Process. — We have spoken of the substances 
which more usually require the care of the house- 
keeper outside the kitchen and pantry, and of 
ways in which they can be cared for. It will be 
well now to describe the order in which cleaning 
is done, and to say a word about the appliances 
used. 

The first thing when cleaning is to be done is to 
gather the appliances needed for the work. If 
possible one should have a broom closet in which all 
the objects used in cleaning can be kept, then no 
time is wasted in hunting them up. Two rows of 
hooks, one high and one low, in some secluded spot 
will do instead of a closet. 

I do not say that one cannot clean a room with 
merely a broom and a duster. One can sweep 
everything with the broom, dust everything with the 
duster, and take the dust up on a newspaper. Good 
appliances, however, make work more thorough, 
more easy, and more interesting. Those which 
I suggest here are merely such as I know to be useful. 
As a woman learns her work and becomes more and 
more interested in it she will choose and invent 
appliances for herself. 




The Broom Closet 



Photograph by Helen W. Cooke 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 141 

The following are the things I like to have to clean 
with : 

A short step-ladder, not heavy. 

A wool mop head with two handles, one long, one short. 

A hair broom. 

A mop handle with two heavy floor cloths. 

A broom of mediimi weight, with a slim handle. 

A furniture beater. 

A long-handled dust pan. 

A flat paint brush. 

A whisk. 

A piece of chamois skin. 

Two cheese-cloth dusters, one damp, one dry. 

Two flannel dusters. 

Several dusting sheets. 

Dusters and dusting sheets can be made of very 
inexpensive or old material, and they are things in 
which it is well not to stint oneself. 

Wool-headed mops are usually called, in shops, 
piano dusters, but why should pianos have a monop- 
oly of anything so comfortable and convenient.'^ 
They are rather expensive but they last a long time, 
and can be washed perfectly clean. One can get 
along with one head and two handles, if necessary, 
by dusting the high things first, using the long 
handle, then the lower things and the floor, using 
the short handle. After this the head must be washed, 
for the floors will make it too dirty to use for walls. 
Wool gathers and holds dust more than any other 
substance I know. 



142 HOUSEKEEPING 

Other appliances which are used for wiping walls 
and floors are string mops, broom bags, and heavy 
cloths attached to a mop handle. String mops scat- 
ter lint and it is impossible to wash them entirely 
clean. Broom bags are good because they can be 
washed easily, and because they make a broom into 
a combination appliance useful either for sweeping 
or wiping. They are said to be better made with 
a ruffle. Mop handles with attachments to hold the 
cloths are easily obtainable and much better for all 
purposes than string mops. In choosing one, see 
that the attachment is neither heavy nor intricate. 
Cloths can be easily attached to a mop stick if a 
deep groove is cut in the stick two or three inches 
from the end. Hold the stick with the grooved 
end up. Lay over it two or three heavy cloths — 
in the way one would put an unfolded handkerchief 
over the end of one's finger. Draw them down and 
tie a string tightly round them in the groove. Then 
reverse the handle and the mop is ready for use. 
Patent handles are better than this homely contriv- 
ance in all but one respect : in using them one must 
guard against striking furniture or baseboards 
with the metal piece which holds the cloth. 

Here are a few important principles of cleaning. 

1. Prepare the place which is to be cleaned. 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 143 

2. Begin at the top. A house is cleaned from 
garret to cellar, a room from ceiling to floor, a 
staircase from top to bottom. 

S. Do not flap round with a cloth or a feather 
duster. The object of cleaning is to remove dust, 
getting as little into the air as possible. 

4. All necesssary shaking and brushing must 
be done before the floor is cleaned; afterward, only 
wiping should be done. 

We will now go over the process of cleaning a 
room as if we were prompting ourselves for the 
actual work. 

Remove the plants to the sink. ' 

Remove and carefully dust the ornaments, putting 
them on a tray which can be carried into an adjoining 
room, or put them on a stationary piece of furniture, 
which has been dusted to receive them, and cover 
with a dusting sheet. 

Shut the doors into adjoining rooms. 

Open the windows. 

Dust the shades and roll to the top of the windows. 

Shake, brush and cover the curtains. 

Remove the upholstered furniture and rugs if 
possible. ( 

If not, brush the furniture and cover it, sweep 
and roll the rugs. v 



144. HOUSEKEEPING 

If there is a fireplace in the room remove the 
ashes and lay the fire. 

Wipe the ceiling, walls, woodwork, light fixtures 
and pictures. 

Wipe the floor, not forgetting the baseboards, 
or sweep the carpet. 

Whatever is done to the floor is the climax of the 
cleaning. After that we restore the room to order. 
This is the period when everything should be done 
by wiping. 

Clean rugs and furniture which have been put out- 
doors. 

Wipe furniture, mirrors, picture-glasses, windows 
and tiles. 

Restore the rugs, furniture and ornaments to their 
places. 

Bits of special cleaning like polishing brasses, 
washing windows, caring for lamps, and the like 
are best done at some other time than that appointed 
for cleaning the room. If these jobs are included, they 
make the regular cleaning too heavy and too long. 

This process has been written out as if the work were 
to be done by one person, which frequently is not the 
case. It is the logical order of the work, however, 
whatever the number of workers. The outline of 
the process is this: 



CARE OF FITTINGS AND FURNITURE 145 

First all brushing and dusting — everything 
which gets dust off othe^ things on to the floor. 

Then the cleaning of the floor. 

Then wiping away all dust made by the cleaning 
and restoring order. 

One cannot effectually do this or any housework 
with one's mind on something else. The processes 
are intricate and logical and require thoughtful 
organization beforehand, and intense attention at 
the moment. If we can think about our neighbours, 
or brood over our grievances while we are cleaning, 
we can be quite sure that we have not done the work 
as well nor as quickly as we could. 



VII 

UPSTAIRS WORK 

UPSTAIRS work" is, I believe a colloquial- 
ism for making beds, tidying bedrooms, 
and caring for washstands and bathrooms. 

The Sequence. — A reasonable order for this work 
is the following: 

Shut the door of the room unless the weather is 
warm. 

Roll the shades to the top of the windows. 

Open the windows top and bottom. 

Open the closet doors. 

Take the bedclothes from the bed and spread them 
across two chairs set far enough apart to keep the 
clothes from lying on the floor. Spread the lower 
sheet in a place by itself and remember which it is. 
Turn the mattress over the foot of the bed, or turn it 
up on edge. 

Do these things in all the rooms which are to be 
cared for, carefully shutting the doors of each. 

If there are washstands in the rooms, now remove 
the waste water and put the stands in order. 

146 



UPSTAIRS WORK 147 

If there are not, make the beds, beginning with the 
one first opened. 

Dust and put the rooms in order. 

Put the bathroom in order. 

If the bedrooms are on more than one floor, it is 
well to do a floor at a time, and the bathrooms after 
all the rooms are finished. 

The upstairs work is then finished until the beds 
are opened and the rooms put in order for the night. 

The Description. — The first five actions in this 
order of work are done for the sake of letting as 
much light and air as possible into the rooms and 
the beds. 

The washstands are put in order next because this 
gives the beds a longer time to air, and because it 
is desirable to get the waste water out of the rooms 
as soon as possible. 

Washstands. — For this work one needs a pail for 
waste water and a newspaper or some such thing for 
it to stand on; two cloths; a stiff brush; and some sort 
of soap or powder which has been found good for 
cleansing toilet china. Borax, ammonia and yellow 
soap are old standbys for this purpose. Where 
there is not running water, one must add to these a 
pail of water for rinsing. Many people think that 
the water for this purpose must be hot, but I have 



148 HOUSEKEEPING 

found that hot water tends to roughen and crack the 
glaze of toilet china, and to incline the articles used 
for waste water to give off an odour. When water 
is left in the pitchers it is well to use it for rinsing as 
this lessens the amount of water to be carried, and 
insures that the water in the pitchers is fresh each 
day. 

Empty all the waste water into the pail brought for 
it. Pour a little clean water into each thing emptied. 
Do not use all the clean water for this first rinsing. 
With one of the cloths wipe the objects on the wash- 
stand which have not been wet; rinse, and with this 
same cloth dry the tooth mug, soap dish, pitchers 
and bowl. If one of the pitchers contains water 
you need, attend to it after the other china is finished. 
Wash the slop jar and chamber with the cleaning 
substance or soap and the stiif brush. Rinse them 
with the remaining clean water and dry them with 
the other cloth. Never use for these articles the 
cloth which in the next room will be needed for the 
cleaner china. To have the two cloths of different 
materials helps the worker to remember this. Fill 
the pitchers with fresh water, carry away soiled 
towels, neatly spread or fold once used ones which 
are to be retained, and leave everything in its place. 

The daily care of a stationary basin consists merely 



UPSTAIRS WORK 149 

In washing or dusting the objects on the edge of the 
basin or on shelves over it, washing and drying the 
basin and the frame which holds it, and wiping dust 
from the pipes and fixtures underneath. 

Whether the care of wash stands is difficult or easy 
depends on the water used, and on whether the work 
is done nicely every day. In spite of daily care, 
very hard water will encrust the china. These 
encrustations can usually be removed after they 
have been soaked with vinegar for a few hours. 

Bed Making. — Making a bed is an art worth 
knowing, it gives such comfort. 

If the spring or other parts of the bedstead need 
dusting, that should be done first, then the mattress 
replaced. This should be turned each day, some- 
times from end to end, sometimes from side to side, 
and given as many thumps and punches as are needed 
to make it level and even with the springs. 

If a pad or cover of any kind is needed over the 
mattress, that is put on first and spread very smoothly, 
or, if wide enough, it is drawn very tightly and 
tucked under the mattress. 

Then put on the under sheet, right side up, with 
the hems at the top and bottom, the selvages at the 
sides and the middle crease in the middle of the bed. 
Turn the sheet smoothly under the mattress at the 



150 HOUSEKEEPING 

head and foot. In the case of the under sheet, this 
turn should be a few inches deeper at the head than 
at the foot; in the upper sheet the deeper turn should 
be made at the foot. The person who sleeps in the 
bed naturally pushes the under sheet down, and 
pulls the upper sheet up. 

To fold the corners, stand at the foot or head of the 
bed. Keeping the fold even, hold the sheet straight 
out from the side of the bed. Put your other hand 
under the corner of the mattress and run it round 
on the fold of the sheet until the thumb is even with 
the upper edge of the mattress. Hold it there. Then 
fold smoothly under the mattress the part of the sheet 
you have held out and withdraw your hand which 
you will find is in a sort of little pocket. This is 
sometimes called a pie corner, and it is rather like 
the fold for a mitred corner in a hem. When fin- 
ished, the under sheet should be tight stretched and 
smooth. 

Spread the upper sheet on the bed wrong side up, 
then when the hem is turned back at the head of the 
bed, it will be right side out. Turn the sheet imder 
at the foot twelve inches if possible. Turn the 
corners at the foot but do not turn the sides under nor 
the corners at the head. See that the sheet lies 
straight, and smooth out all wrinkles. 



UPSTAIRS WORK 151 

Put on the blankets, their upper edges reaching to 
the place where you intend to make the backward 
fold in the sheet. Fold them under about twelve 
inches at the foot, not at all at the sides; smooth 
them carefully. 

If two people sleep in a bed or if the blankets are 
narrow, put a single blanket on crosswise, placing one 
of the selvages even with the edge of the mattress 
at the foot of the bed, then the ends will hang some 
distance over the sides. Some people fold double 
blankets evenly, some prefer to fold them with one 
binding a good way below the other binding. This 
preference depends on whether one likes the upper 
part of the bed covering thick or thin, and also 
whether the blanket is long enough to turn under 
at the foot when folded evenly. The fold, not the 
bindings should be at the foot of the bed, in order 
that, if too warm, one thickness of the blanket can 
be easily thrown back. 

When all the bedclothes are on, with the excep- 
tion of the spread, turn back the edge of the upper 
sheet over the blankets, leaving about a foot of the 
under sheet exposed. Then fold all the coverings 
neatly under the mattress at the sides, drawing them 
smooth and straight. 

The spread is put over the whole bed. It should 



152 HOUSEKEEPING 

hang over at the sides and foot, far enough to hide the 
mattress, springs and all under parts of the bed 
which are not of the same material or finish as the 
upper parts. 

Bolsters are laid flat either under or over the 
spread at the head of the bed. They are not so 
invariably used as in times past. 

If there is no bolster, two pillows are sometimes 
laid flat in its place, and two pillows set on edge upon 
them. If there is a bolster, the pillows are set edge- 
wise upon it. They must be well beaten, smoothed 
and set up securely. 

If shams are used they should be spread over the 
pillows and bolster as smoothly as possible. They 
are usually supported by tapes fastened across the 
upper corners of the shams on the wrong side, and 
slipped over the corners of the pillows. 

In places where dust and smuts must be constantly 
guarded against, one must either use shams or else 
cover the pillows with the spread. This last is 
often not an agreeable arrangement to the eye, but 
it is better than smirched and dingy pillows. 

Bed linen is changed according to the quantity 
of linen the housewife possesses, the amount of 
laundry she can have done, and her own taste in the 
matter. The common tradition is a sheet a week 



UPSTAIRS WORK 153 

for each bed, and a pillowcase a week for each 
pillow regularly used. In this case, the upper sheet 
becomes the lower sheet during the second week of 
its wear. This change is made because it is more 
agreeable to have the cleaner linen nearest one's face, 
and turned out to view when the bed is opened for 
the night. 

If you do not sleep long and soundly after reading 
this description of bed making, I am sure it isn't 
my fault. 

When the bed has been made, the room should be 
put in order; clothes put in the closet and the closet 
door shut, the sweeper run over the rugs if needful, 
all visible dust removed, articles on bureaus and 
tables put in their accustomed places, all drawers 
tightly closed, faded flowers and burnt matches 
removed, and everything straightened. Then partly 
close the windows, draw the shades to the same 
level at each window, and go on to the next 
room. 

In extremely damp or extremely cold weather, 
one may have to get along with less airing, but it 
should not be lessened except for grave cause. In 
some houses, it will be more convenient to make all 
the beds before doing any dusting. If there are 
people in the house who do not leave their rooms 



154 HOUSEKEEPING 

until after breakfast, or who wish to occupy them 
very soon after breakfast, such rooms will have to 
be done separately and later or earlier than the 
others. 

In the evening, bedrooms should be prepared for 
the night. Waste water should be carried away, 
pitchers filled, washstands tidied and beds opened. 
Shams and spread are removed from each bed and 
neatly folded. Leaving the sheet folded over the 
other bedclothes as it is already, turn them all back 
until they make a straight wide fold across the bed 
a little above the middle. Then straighten the 
coverings at the sides and tuck them under the mat- 
tress again, making everything very neat and straight. 
Put the pillows on the bed as the person who occu- 
pies it likes to have them. This can sometimes be 
discovered by noticing in the morning how the 
pillows are placed, unless the person is so exemplary 
as to open his own bed for airing. If you are pre- 
paring the bed for a stranger put the bolster and 
pillows back on the bed and allow the guest to 
arrange them later. 

The night clothes and wrapper belonging to the 
occupant of the room should be laid across the foot 
of the bed or over a chair, and bedroom slippers put 
beside them on the floor. 



UPSTAIRS WORK 155 

This part of the upstairs work adds exceedingly 
to the comfort of a family, but I think it is one of 
the things to be left undone in households where the 
work is heavy and the workers few. 

Bathroom. — The bathroom, like other rooms, needs 
some daily care and some periodical care. 

Daily the stationary basin must be cared for as 
previously described. 

The tub and its fixtures must be washed, and 
wiped entirely dry. For this it is good to have a 
stiff brush with a handle and a soft cloth. Both 
these conveniences should always be kept hanging 
on a hook near the tub. It is only common decency 
after one has used a bathtub to rinse and wipe it 
for the sake of the next person. If a brush and neat 
cloth are kept near the tub, the good-intentioned will 
find it easier to cleanse the tub, and the lazy will have 
less excuse for not doing it. 

The wood and metal parts of the closet should be 
wiped, first with a damp cloth, then with a dry one. 
The china parts should be scrubbed thoroughly 
with soap and one of the long-handled brushes made 
for this purpose. When the scrubbing is finished, 
flush the closet and rinse it with the brush, then 
flush again. Leave the cover open. The bathroom 
should be thoroughly aired and as much sun as 



156 HOUSEKEEPING 

possible let in while the upstairs work is being 
done. 

Once a week, or twice a week, the bathroom will 
need a more thorough cleaning. Wipe the ceiling 
and walls with water if the finish permits. If not, 
with a dry cloth or mop. Wash all the fixtures, the 
woodwork and the floor with soap and water, and 
carefully dry them. Do not forget the outsides of 
the tub and basin. If the fixtures are nickel, they 
should be polished when they really need it, not 
oftener, with some patent nickel polish or with 
whiting. The woodwork of the closet should be 
rubbed with oil, especially if the finish begins to 
be worn. This prevents the wood from absorbing 
impurities. 

If there are rugs in the bathroom, they should be 
washed as soon as they show need. No rug which 
cannot be washed should be allowed in an ordinary 
bathroom. 

Many people recommend flushing waste-pipes 
now and then with a strong hot solution of washing 
soda. The overflow pipes should be included in 
this performance. Good, new plumbing, however 
can probably be spared treatment of this sort. 

Bedrooms are cleaned every week or every fort- 
night in the same way that other rooms are. They 




Air, Sun, and Water 



Photograph by Helen W. Cooke 



UPSTAIRS WORK 157 

are apt, however, to contain closets and these require 
some special care. 

Closets. — When a room is being prepared for clean- 
ing, the floor and baseboards of the closet should 
be wiped with a dry mop or cloth — anything which 
will not make a dust — and the door tightly closed. 
Once in a while, before the cleaning of the room if 
there is time, if not, on some other day, the clothing 
should be removed from the closet, the walls wiped, 
and everything washed which can be, — ^hooks, whe 
hangers, the rods on which these hang, shelves and 
floor should be washed with water in which has been 
put a generous quantity of ammonia, borax or 
boracic acid. These things are not liked by the 
various small insects which annoy housewives. They 
also help to prevent mustiness and "close" odours. 
After the washing, everything should . be carefully 
wiped dry, and as much light and air let into the 
closet as possible. The contents should not be put 
in again until this drying and airing is finished. 
Do not wash closets on a rainy or humid day. If they 
have a musty or unpleasant odour, a few drops of 
oil of lavender put on a shelf or on the floor will help 
to remove it. A little chloride of lime, poured into 
a saucer and set on the floor of the closet, will also 
remove odours. Little bags of lavender or rose- 



158 HOUSEKEEPING 

geranium leaves laid on closet shelves add much to 
the daintiness and freshness of the clothes kept there. 
The shelves should be covered with white paper 
cut, not folded, to fit the shelf. Folds afford harbour- 
age for insects. Floors should be left without 
covering of any sort. Ideally, they are of hard wood 
like the floor of the room. 

Clothes get more air, and are less creased and 
rumpled if they are hung on hangers suspended on 
a pole or wire, than when they are hung one piece 
on top of another on hooks fastened into the wall. 
Even in a wall closet, not more than ten inches deep, 
one gains space by stretching a strong wire from 
opposite hooks, and putting hangers on this. Four 
or five waists or dresses will hang without crushing 
on such a ten-inch wire. A closet with a shelf in it 
offers better, hanging-space if hooks are put at 
intervals into the under side of the shelf. A hook 
like two J's, back to back, is made especially for this 
purpose. 

It is well to give bedrooms a look of peacefulness. 
Some things which help in this are: perfect clean- 
liness, few decorations, few colours, a bed which 
looks like a bed, a regard for the occupant's wishes 
to have personal possessions one way rather than 



UPSTAIRS WORK 159 

another, and something else — I have no name for 
it, but it is there because the housewife has wished, 
as she made the bed and arranged the room, that the 
person who sleeps there may have rest and quiet of 
heart. 

She has folded into the sheets perhaps this prayer: 

And four great Angels guard this bed. 
Two at the foot and two at the head. 



VIII 

DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 

THE dining room is put in order daily and 
cleaned periodically in the same way that 
the other rooms in the house are cared for. 
The daily care of this room, however, has to be a 
little more thoroughly and thoughtfully given. It 
should be noticeably neat, carefully aired, and a trifle 
cooler than a living room. Pure air and the rest- 
fulness of order are favourable and refining to 
appetite. 

To allow fruit or any kind of food to stand in the 
dining room is a poor custom. Such things attract 
flies, create an odour of food in the room, and encour- 
age the indulgent habit of eating bits now and then 
between meals. 

The plant or flowers used on the table need a little 
care each day. Water in which flowers stand, quickly 
becomes discoloured enough to show dark against 
a white cloth, and soon gives off an unpleasant odour. 
Even when there is little time for looking after such 
things, one can take the flowers out, holding them 

160 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 161 

in position, quickly clip off the ends of the stems 
and the leaves that are wet, and put them back into 
fresh water. A plant should be watered each day 
and have dust and withered leaves removed from it. 

The hours for meals should be times of rest and 
social pleasure, they cannot be if disagreeable sights, 
sounds, or smells accompany them. Keep the dining 
room neat, aired and cool. In a clean, well-kept room 
there will be less fault-finding, scolding and gloom 
than in a neglected one. Such a room will also 
help people to be agreeable, attentive and interesting, 
in harmony with their surroundings. 

The Table. — If the dining table has a polished 
top it will need special and frequent care. Some 
people prefer a table of which the top is a plain white 
wood because it does not need special care. Such a 
table must of course be kept covered with a linen 
cloth at meals and a table cover at other times. 

A polished table must be constantly guarded from 
heat and scratches, and must be polished at regular 
intervals. Where very hot dishes are to be placed 
the table should have added to the usual protection 
of an undercloth the further protection of asbestos 
or basketwork mats. These can be hidden, if you 
wish, with linen carving cloths or doilies. 

Rub the table briskly for a few moments every 



162 HOUSEKEEPING 

day "with a soft cloth or a piece of chamois skin. 
About once a week polish it more carefully. Before 
either of these performances remove any stickiness 
or greasiness with a damp cloth. 

The mixture of sweet oil and vinegar recommended 
for furniture is excellent for a table. (1 tablespoonful 
of vinegar to 3 of sweet oil.) A mixture of equal 
parts sweet oil and turpentine is also good. Rub 
the table thoroughly with a soft cloth dampened 
with the mixture, then rub it with a clean cloth. 

Dull spots occasionally appear even on the most 
carefully guarded tables. Long and frequent polish- 
ing will sometimes remove these. If the finish is 
seriously injured, however, amateur efiPorts to restore 
it are more likely to make it worse than better. 

On account of frequent rubbing and unavoidable 
wear, the table-leaves in use should often be changed 
for those not in use, the whole table will then be of 
the same colour and in the same condition. 

Table Setting. — Before beginning to set the table, 
see that it is the. right size. Neither people nor 
dishes should be crowded if this can possibly be 
avoided; it is also undesirable to have the table 
too large for the number at the meal. 

For dinner the table is first spread with a cotton- 
flannel or felt undercloth. This is not only to save 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 163 

a polished table from injuries; it improves the 
appearance of any table and prevents noise. Over 
it is laid the linen cloth, the middle crease running 
the length of the table exactly in the middle. 

In some households a smaller, lighter tablecloth 
is used for breakfast and luncheon. In others, a 
luncheon cloth of embroidered linen, lace or drawn 
work is used for these less formal meals. In others, 
the table is left bare and doilies spread where 
plates and dishes are to be set. Many people who 
use doilies or a luncheon cloth for luncheon prefer 
a covered table at breakfast. These are all matters 
of taste or economy with one exception. It is the 
custom to spread the table for dinner with a cloth 
which entirely covers it. 

When the tablecloth has been laid, a centrepiece 
of linen or lace is sometimes placed upon it in the 
centre of the tabl^. If carving is to be done, a carving 
cloth is placed at the foot of the table in such a posi- 
tion that the platter will stand in the middle of it. 

All the table linen, when removed, should be 
refolded in the creases made by the iron. Centre- 
pieces and doilies should be laid flat in a drawer or 
the former rolled on a roller. A little care in this 
matter keeps the cloths fresh longer and protects 
delicate linen from too frequent washing. 



164 HOUSEKEEPING 

A napkin is laid at each place, on the right or 
in the centre. Napkins should match the table- 
cloth but this is not always possible because they 
have to be changed more frequently than the cloth. 
Fresh napkins every day at dinner is the agreeable 
and not extreme method of changing them; to have 
fresh ones at every meal is rarely possible or neces- 
sary except in hotels; a change twice a week is the 
minimum at which any degree of comfort can be 
maintained. 

When all the linen necessary is on the table, place 
exactly in the middle of the linen centrepiece the 
vase of flowers, plant or dish of fruit which is to 
be the centre decoration of the table. It makes 
variety and daintiness if this decoration is flowers 
or a plant or even a silver or glass vase rather than 
food in any form. A pretty thing helps to remind us 
that eating is not the only thing for which we come 
together. It may also afford a topic for pleasant 
conversation. 

After the centre decoration is placed put on candle- 
sticks or lamps, carafes, decanters, salts and peppers 
and any large objects which are to be used, leaving 
places for bread plates, relish dishes and the like. 
These things should be arranged symmetrically, not 
as if they were men on a checker-board, but with 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 165 

the sort of symmetry which the leaves on a vine have. 
If there is not some evidence of design in the arrange- 
ment of a table, it will look littered. 

Add now to the napkin at each place, everything 
which will be needed during the meal, or until the 
serving of the sweet at luncheon or at dinner, or until 
the serving of fruit as a last course at any meal. 
The finger bowl, doily and silver needed for these 
courses are frequently arranged on the plate to be 
used and brought to each place at the beginning 
of the course. 

At the left of the place lay the forks in the order 
in which they are to be used; at the right lay the 
knives in the same order with their edges toward the 
plates; at the right of the knives lay the soup spoon. 
If the dessert spoon is put on the table it is placed 
at the right of the knives and the soup spoon. 
Spoons are laid on the table with the hollow of the 
bowl up, and forks with the ends of the tines up. 

Besides the silver each place needs a glass for 
water — glasses are turned up, not down — and 
others suitable for any beverages which are to be 
served. A salt cellar will be needed if individual 
salts are used. These are not regarded favourably 
at present but are tolerated if each has a spoon. 
And either a small butter plate or a bread and butter 



166 HOUSEKEEPING 

plate and butter knife are put at each place except 
sometimes at dinner when butter is not served. 
When meals are formally served a plate is put at 
each place which is removed when the first course 
is brought. 

One cannot lay places correctly without knowing 
the menu for the meal. The food to be eaten deter- 
mines the objects needed for eating it. 

When the table is set with the exception of the 
food, the sideboard or serving table, or both should 
be arranged. On these are put dessert or fruit 
plates arranged with finger bowls and silver, all 
the china not to be heated which will be needed for 
the courses of the meal, any seasonings or bottled 
sauces which the family are in the habit of asking 
for, a crumb tray and napkin or scraper, a small 
napkin or doily with which a spot of gravy or fruit 
juice could be quickly removed from the tablecloth, 
a water pitcher and a serving tray. If after-dinner 
coffee is made on the table, it is convenient to set 
out all the articles needed for this on a tray on the 
sideboard. Room must be kept on the serving 
table for the vegetable dishes which are usually, 
left there during the course to which they 
belong. 

A few minutes before a meal is served is the time to 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 167 

place food such as pickles, jelly, bread, butter and milk 
on the table or the serving table and to fill the glasses 
with water. If ice is put into each glass it should 
be done carefully with a spoon. It adds to the 
appearance of butter balls and helps to keep them 
cool if a lettuce leaf is laid in the dish under them. 
They keep their shape and firmness better if kept 
in a bowl of water when in the refrigerator. At 
luncheon or breakfast bread is served on a plate 
or tray, or the loaf, board and knife are put on the 
table. At dinner a piece of bread is laid by each 
place or tucked into each napkin. Hot biscuits 
keep hot longer if a napkin is spread over the plate 
and folded over them. Cold bread or crackers, also 
cheese, are often served on a folded napkin, they 
look better so than on a plate. 

In laying the table, time, steps and thought can 
be saved by taking as many things as possible from 
one place at one time. That is, after the linen is on 
the table. First put on everything needed from 
the sideboard, then everything needed from the 
china closet, then everything needed from the pantry. 
All the articles from each place can sometimes be 
brought in one trip with the help of a tray. If the 
flat silver is kept in a basket, it is better to carry 
the basket from place to place and take out what 



168 HOUSEKEEPING 

is needed. This saves steps and some handling 
of the silver. 

When the places where the dishes and silver are 
to be kept are first decided upon, and when the order 
in which the table is set is first learned, both should 
be done with the thought of saving steps and of 
opening drawers and doors as seldom as possible. 

Tables should be set without noise. Not only 
because it is disagreeable to hear the rattling of 
dishes but because thumps, and clatter, and jingle 
mean scars on the table, nicks in the china, scratches 
on the silver and a lack of that dainty carefulness 
without which a table is never perfectly set. 

Waiting. — "Waiting" requires more *'head" 
than other household employments. One can keep 
accounts slowly and laboriously, one can sweep 
without possessing much tact, one can even cook 
without possessing a great degree of administrative 
ability, or do laundry work without a good memory. 
To "wait" cleverly requires all these qualities. 

The object of waiting is that the needs and wants 
of those seated at table shall be supplied without 
effort, often without consciousness on their part. 
It also preserves the orderliness of the table, and 
makes inquiries about people's wishes unnecessary. 
One occasionally hears the objection made to careful 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 169 

waiting that it makes people thoughtless for the 
comfort of others. I would suggest that conver- 
sation made agreeable and amusing to others requires 
greater and more continued thoughtfulness than 
passing the beans and the butter. 

The waitress should have in her mind a plan 
of the meal including not only the food but also the 
china, silver and linen needed for serving it. If 
a meal is more than two courses long, it is often better 
to have the plan written out. This is a little trouble, 
but saves mistakes, and the necessity of stopping 
to think when one has not time to think. 

The waitress is expected to be in the dining 
room when the family enter for the meal. She should 
be ready to serve the first course as soon as they are 
seated. If this course is oysters or grape-fruit or 
some such thing, plates containing it are set before 
each guest. Two plates can be brought at once 
if there are no plates already on the table; if there 
are, the waitress can only bring one plate for she 
must remove the empty plate before she can set the 
other down. When the plates are all on the table 
she will then pass anything which accompanies the 
course. Sometimes various small relishes and bis- 
cuits such as are required with raw oysters can be 
put on the tray and all passed at the same time. 



170 HOUSEKEEPING 

When the course is finished the soiled plates are 
removed two at a time and after that anything from 
the table belonging to the course. The soup plates 
are then brought and set before the hostess if the 
soup is to be served on the table. The tureen is 
placed before her, uncovered, and the cover deposited 
on the serving table. The waitress stands at the 
left of the person serving, takes each plate as it is 
ready and places it before a guest. If the soup is 
served from the pantry or the serving table, the 
plates are brought two at a time, as for the former 
course. 

With a few changes in detail to be noted 
below, courses are served as one or other of the 
two described. This is an outline for serving a 
course. 

Remove the food of the preceding course. 

Remove the plates. 

Remove relishes, biscuits, etc., belonging especially to that course. 

Remove unused plates and silver belonging especially to that course. 

Bring the plates for or containing the next course. 

Bring the chief dish of the course. 

Serve each person. 

Pass anything which completes the course, like sauce or gravy. 

Pass anything which accompanies the course, like vegetables, or 
sometimes, a salad. 

See that glasses are filled, and guests suppUed with butter. 

Listen for the answer when any one is asked to accept a second 
helping or consulted about his wishes. 

After an interval, pass a second time anything of which a second 
helping may be taken, provided there is none of it on the plate. 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 171 

Detail {a) . — It is the custom for the host to 
serve the fish and do the carving. Perhaps it is 
a survival from the days when these things were 
the trophies of his hunting and fishing. The hostess 
serves the soup, salad and dessert. 

Detail (6) . — If the family is large the plates 
for the meat should be put on the serving table 
and one placed before the carver at a time. The 
waitress stands beside the carver with the next 
plate in her hand and puts it before him when she 
removes the one which is ready to pass. Or if the 
waitress is too much occupied to do this, three 
or four plates can be put before the carver, then three 
or four more. 

Detail (c) . — A vegetable requiring a separate 
plate, such as asparagus or corn on the cob, is served 
after the other vegetables. A plate for it is first put 
at the left of each place and then the vegetable is 
passed. Salad, when served with the meat course, 
is arranged for and passed in the same way. 

Detail (d). — Everything to which a guest is 
to help himself is passed to him from the left side 
that he may comfortably use his right hand. Things 
which he has already accepted, like a serving of 
meat or a cup of coffee, are placed before him by 
the waitress. 



172 HOUSEKEEPING 

Detail (e) . — Some authorities say that the people 
on one side of the table should be served in the order 
in which they sit, then the people on the other side 
in the same order, without regard to sex or precedence. 
This is well enough for a table full of people of about 
equal age and importance, but in an ordinary 
family there are apt to be guests or a grandmother 
to whom all slight deferences are due. I took a 
meal with a family not a great while ago at 
which the two small children were served before 
the guests and their mother. Extraordinary spec- 
tacle! 

The question whether the hostess shall be served 
first or not is much discussed. I can only say that 
I have never yet seen a "guest of honour" who 
would not have been glad if the hostess had been 
served before her. 

The outline for serving a course, with the addition 
of the suggestions above, holds good until dessert. 
At the end of the course before dessert, the table is 
cleared of everything except the decorations and 
glasses. The carving cloth is lightly folded together 
and carried away. Crumbs are removed and any 
disarrangement restored to order. Then the dessert 
plates, arranged with finger bowl, doily and silver 
are brought from the sideboard. As soon as one 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 173 

IS placed before each guest the dessert is served. 
If it is served by the hostess the waitress takes the 
first plate from before the hostess as soon as it is 
ready and replaces it with an extra one which she 
has in her hand. She brings back the one she 
removes from before the guest whom she served and 
places it before the hostess when she removes the one 
filled in her absence. 

The conventional dress for a waitress is a plain 
black frock with white collar and cuffs, a large white 
apron with a bib and shoulder straps, and a small 
cap. At breakfast she usually wears a light-coloured 
cotton frock instead of the black one as this is more 
suitable for the work she does in the morning. Her 
shoes should be comfortable for her own sake, and 
noiseless for the sake of others. The same cleanliness 
and daintiness which are necessary in her work 
should also be hers personally. I cannot believe 
that it is ever very difficult to persuade a girl to this. 
Probably a mistress need only express an interest 
in her waitress's hair, and teeth, and hands, and 
pretty looks and they will soon be well cared for. 
Such interest on the part of the mistress is not merely 
requited with an improvement in the appearance 
of her waitress. A girl who can put a dainty collar 
on herself has taken a long step toward being able 



174 HOUSEKEEPING 

to put a cfainty collar on a chop-bone; if her hands 
are clean and soft, she will not like disgusting dish- 
water or soppy glass-towels any better than her 
mistress does. 

Waiting and elaborate methods of serving meals 
may easily become a nuisance and a burden instead 
of a help and a pleasure. To try for "appearances" 
to which the skill and strength of a waitress or a maid- 
of-all-work are unequal is to produce a worried 
hostess and nervous, wearied guests. A certain 
degree of order, daintiness and formality should 
characterize every meal, but these things do not 
depend upon the number of courses, nor upon the 
presence of a waitress. 

In a household where there is no maid, thoughtful- 
ness beforehand can prevent any getting up from table 
except between courses. All the food and accessories 
for a course must be placed on the table and served 
by some member of the family, and the plates must 
be passed from hand to hand. Sometimes two or 
even three courses can be agreeably put together, 
as when a salad is served with the meat course, or 
fruit and coffee are brought with the dessert. Often 
in this way a dinner can be acceptably served with 
only one or two clearings of the table, which under 
other circumstances would have been five or six 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 175 

courses long. A large tray on the serving table 
upon which the plates and dishes can be put and 
all removed together is a great assistance. Upon 
such a tray, also, everything necessary for a whole 
course can often be brought from the kitchen at 
one trip. The article known as a dinner wagon 
is even better as an assistant than a tray. 

In a small family it makes less confusion if only 
one person does the necessary waiting. A daughter 
rather than a mother should do this, or the person 
who has not done the cooking rather than the 
person who has. In a large family two people 
should do the waiting, partly for speed, partly because 
it is hard work. There is the further advantage 
that work done by two people is much more cheerful 
than work done by one. I have little patience with 
families in which one sister does all the housework 
for a week or a month, and then another takes it 
for the same length of time. It is well enough to 
divide the work into departments and sometimes 
exchange those, but no sister should rock on the 
veranda while the other washes the dishes alone. 
In the first place it is not economic — two could 
do the work more quickly and then both could rest. 
And besides, what a loss of companionship! The 
most helpful and intimate talks I have ever had 



176 HOUSEKEEPING 

with one of my sisters have been while we were 
washing dishes together. 

In households where there is but one maid, it is 
wise to make her duties as waitress few and simple. 
She is probably not trained for the work, and besides, 
if she has cooked the meal, she is hot and tired just at 
the moment when she should be fresh and alert. 
Under such conditions the waiting is not likely to 
be well and quickly done. If the maid does those 
things which prevent any getting up from table, 
that is really enough for her to do. If, however, 
you wish her to pass plates and vegetables, at least 
serve the sauce on the platter with the fish, have the 
gravy for the meat and the sauce for the pudding 
placed where the server can help them, and depend 
upon those seated at the table to pass the bread, 
butter, pickles and jelly which are before them. 

In clearing the table, the large tray mentioned 
before is an aid which should be allowed to one 
maid. Any piling of dishes as they are removed, 
however carefully done, looks unpleasant; taking 
two plates to the pantry at a time costs many steps. 
The large tray on the serving table is a compromise 
between these alternatives which I have found good. 

Waiting, like table setting cannot become excellent 
unless it is characterized by an almost exaggerated 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 177 

carefulness. Whether the meal is elaborate or 
extremely simple, evidences should never be lacking 
of minute thoughtfulness and of the use of careful 
hands. 

The Pantry. — A pantry is like a tea basket, or 
a handy box, or a ship's cabin. It is a small space 
containing a great variety of useful things. The 
one virtue necessary above all others in such a space 
is orderliness. Without it convenient compactness 
becomes crowded confusion. 

Things not connected with pantry work should 
have a place found for them elsewhere. 

Things most frequently used should be on the 
shelves and in the drawers which require least reach- 
ing and stooping. 

Things of the same kind should be grouped 
together except when this violates the previous 
rule. That is, for the sake of keeping all the platters 
together, it is not necessary to use precious space 
on the most practicable pantry shelf for a platter only 
used at Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

Dish Washing. — Dish washing is such a frequent 
and important part of pantry work that it deserves 
a few words of description, perhaps of praise. 

Dish-washing accessories should be within arms' 
reach as one stands at the sink. They are: a dish- 



178 HOUSEKEEPING 

pan, soap, borax or ammonia, towels — soft ones 
for the fine dishes, coarser ones for the heavier 
dishes — a dish drainer, a sink strainer for scraps. 
To these may be added a mop and a dishcloth if 
you feel you must have these articles, but I wish 
I could convert you to the use instead of a small- 
sized whisk, or a little fibre broom such as is sold 
for cleaning sinks. Broom straws softened by 
warm water will not scratch cut glass and yet are stiff 
enough to use for washing pots. The little broom 
can be scalded and dried through and through on 
the back of the stove. It does not smell, and dish 
washing done with it is as different from dish washing 
done with a cloth, as eating with a fork is different 
from eating with your fingers. 

In a pantry where many dishes are washed a fold- 
ing table is a serviceable accessory to dish washing. 
It can be set up to receive the dried dishes, and 
folded again when no longer needed. 

The list of accessories for dish washing done where 
there is no running water is slightly different. One 
must then have one or t^yo kettles of hot water on 
the fire. The dish drainer must have a tray to stand 
on or be replaced with pans. The sink strainer 
will not be needed. A bowl can be used instead, 
but not a tin receptacle, for scraps of food some- 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 179 

times combine to form acids which eat or discolour 
tin. 

The Preparation. — For the work of dish washing, 
first get yourself ready. Put on an apron, preferably 
one with a bib. If your sleeves are long, either 
turn them back or cover them with half -sleeves 
which button tightly round the wrist. 

Next put away all food. 

Then prepare the dishes. Gather the glass together. 
Empty the tumblers which have contained water, 
but fill with water those which have contained milk. 
Collect the cups and saucers, emptying the cups 
and rinsing out dregs or tea leaves. Scrape the 
plates thoroughly with a spoon, not with a knife, 
and pile each kind together. If there is much 
gravy or sauce upon them, rub them off quickly 
with a discarded crust or a celery stalk. Put the 
silver into a bowl or pitcher and pour water upon it. 
Platters should be scraped like the plates. Fill 
cream pitchers, gravy boats and vegetable dishes 
with water. 

All this preparation is not old-maidishness and 
a waste of time. It saves time, and dishes, and 
disgust. 

The Process. — When the dishes have been made 
ready for washing, pour a generous supply of hot 



180 HOUSEKEEPING 

water into the dishpan. Put into it a little borax, 
or a larger supply if the water is hard. Lay in two 
or three glasses. They should be put in edge first, 
wet inside and out at the same moment, and not 
laid close enough to touch each other. Take 
them out one at a time and immediately wipe them 
dry and bright. They become streaked if allowed 
to drain. Replace those taken out with others to 
be washed. Set the wiped glasses in a space pre- 
pared for them on a shelf or table, or if there 
is little room in the pantry put them on a tray which 
can be carried at once to the cupboard. After the 
glasses, wash and wipe any other glass which is 
not greasy, but leave anything which is until after 
soap has been put into the water. 

Neither the glass nor any of the dishes should 
be touched with one's bare hand after it is lifted 
from the water, but should be held always with the 
cloth, wiped and polished with the cloth and set 
down at last with a hand still covered. 

When the glass is finished, put soap into the 
water with the aid of a soap shaker or any other 
contrivance which prevents the soap from lying in 
the water or from being stuck on a fork. Make 
good suds, but not strong suds, for this injures colour 
and gilding. 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 181 

Dishes are usually washed in the order of greasiness, 
therefore the cups and saucers come next after the 
glass and after these any plates which are but slightly 
soiled. These cleaner dishes often need no rubbing 
with cloth or brush, but can be lifted out of the water 
and placed in a drainer or pan, the cups on their 
sides, the plates on edge. Rubbing, however gentle, 
at last wears off decoration. Dishes must never 
lie soaking in the dish-water because this also 
injures their decorations. A few of the same kind 
should be put in the water at a time, washed and 
immediately removed. This is the chief preventive 
of chipping and breaking, and it also allows room 
enough in the water for thorough washing. 

The silver is the next thing to wash. If the water 
has cooled by this time it should be changed, or if 
one has to be economical, it can be partially changed 
and more soap added. Usually the flat silver can 
all be put into the water at once, then washed a few 
pieces at a time and laid carefully in a drainer or 
pan. Some housewives prefer to wipe the silver, 
like the glasses, immediately from the dish-water, 
but as it has to be washed with soap, there is a good 
reason for rinsing it. Larger pieces of silver must 
be put in like the dishes, a piece or two at a time, 
to prevent dents and scratches. 



182 HOUSEKEEPING 

Next wash plates, never allowing small ones and 
large ones in the water together, then platters, 
vegetable dishes, milk pitchers, salad bowl and gravy 
boat, putting not more than one or two in the water 
at a time. 

As often as dishwater becomes cool or greasy, 
change it. This is a fixed rule for those who have 
an ample water supply. If however, it is necessary 
to be extremely economical with water, it is better 
to stint the dishwater than the rinsing water. 

There are two extreme ways of rinsing dishes 
and a middle way. One of the extremes is to 
immerse the dishes in a pan of hot water and wipe 
them therefrom. This is indeed cleanly but it 
takes much water and many towels. The other 
extreme is to arrange them in a drainer and either 
pour scalding water over them or immerse them 
for a moment in scalding water and then leave 
them to dry by their own heat which they do almost 
instantly. A zealous housewife finds it hard to 
believe that this is as good as wiping, but the smooth, 
shining dishes which result from it convince her. 

The middle way is to set the dishes in a drainer 
and pour scalding water over them as in the other 
case, but this time to complete the work by wiping 
each piece. They are so nearly dry that the wiping 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 183 

is but a small act, often little more than a keen inspec- 
tion and a rub for good measure. 

Delicate china must not be rinsed with extremely 
hot water as a sudden change of temperature some- 
times breaks it as it does glass. 

The rinsing method first described is best for 
silver for it should be thoroughly rinsed in very 
hot water and dried with a cloth and vigorous 
rubbing. Any evaporating process leaves it dull and 
spotted. As one wipes it, any piece discoloured 
or dull should be laid aside for special attention. 
Egg stains can be removed with a little salt, or often 
just with rubbing them with a cloth which has been 
used to apply silver polish. If one has no covered 
shelf or table on which the silver can be laid as it 
is wiped, it is well to spread a towel to receive it. 
This saves noise and scratching. 

Carafes, decanters, vinegar cruets or any narrow 
necked articles can be cleaned with chopped white 
potato, or with crushed egg shells. A combination 
of crushed egg shells, | cup of salt and J cup of 
vinegar is also good for this purpose. A slim paint 
brush — the kind used to paint window casings, not 
pictures — is excellent for washing bottles. The 
brush end will do the washing and the handle end 
with a towel over it will do the wiping. There are 



184 HOUSEKEEPING 

regular bottle brushes but I have found a paint 
brush better than any one I have yet tried. 

Steel knives, whether plated or not, need special 
care. They should never, never be laid in water 
but held in the dish washer's hands while they are 
washed, then wiped perfectly dry. If they are 
silver plated they are polished like the rest of the 
silver except that they are wet as little as possible. 
If not plated they must be scoured as often as used. 
This helps to keep them sharp as well as bright. 
Rest the blades flat on a board when cleaning them, 
otherwise they may be bent or even broken. After 
they have been scoured, they must be washed with 
the same care as before and dried thoroughly. 
Avoid anything, whether hot water or excessive 
friction, which greatly heats the blades, for this 
breaks the handles by expanding the steel pieces 
which run up into them. 

Discoloured knife handles will sometimes whiten 
if scoured with a piece of lemon dipped in salt and 
washed off quickly with hot soapsuds. Powdered 
pumice also whitens them. 

After the dishes are washed and wiped, all the 
cloths and brushes used should be thoroughly 
washed in hot suds, then carefully rinsed. If they 
can be hung out in the sua. that is best, but if not, 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 185 

they should be hung where they will dry before 
they are needed again. One may not be able to 
spare time to wash or even rinse the towels after 
every dish washing, but they must positively be 
washed once a day. Sticky and unpleasant-smelling 
table appointments quickly result from neglected 
towels and dishcloths. 

And what can be said in praise of dish washing.? 
Well, it is making things clean and there is always 
satisfaction in that; it is a sign that one more thing 
is finished and there is satisfaction in that, even though 
another begins at once; and, personally I like 
dish washing because it is work that after a little 
practice can be done almost entirely with hands and 
eyes, and so the time it takes may be a rest time, or 
a thought time, or a prayer time as one wills it. 

Silver Cleaning. — Some people say silver must 
be cleaned once a week, others once a fortnight, 
others contend that once a month is enough. A 
general rule cannot be made, however, for a thing 
which depends entirely on particular climate, par- 
ticular light and heating apparatus and particular 
standards of care and orderliness. One can only 
say polish it as often as it needs polishing and not 
oftener. 

Those silver polishes which are intended to be 



186 HOUSEKEEPING 

rubbed on the articles and then removed with very 
hot water are the more desirable. A silver polish 
which is hard on hands is to be avoided, not merely 
for the hands' sake but for the silver's. 

To clean silver, one requires a soft cloth and a 
soft hair brush for applying the polish; also several 
other soft cloths, a piece of chamois skin and a 
clean, soft brush for polishing. 

Rub the polish on smooth surfaces with a soft 
cloth, • on filigree or engraving with a soft brush. 
Wash in very hot water, wipe with soft cloths, 
polish with chamois skin and a soft brush. Never 
touch the silver with bare hands after it comes out 
of the hot water. To wear a pair of chamois gloves 
while doing this work is an excellent help and pro- 
tection. 

If silver not constantly in use is kept in canton- 
flannel bags in a box where there is a piece of gum 
camphor, it will be as bright when it is taken out 
as it was when it was put in. The bags are better 
than tissue paper, for this sometimes contains 
chemicals which discolour the silver. New silver 
usually comes in such bags, but the time and money 
necessary for making bags for older pieces, are saved 
again and again by the unaided care they take of 
the silver committed to them. White canton flannel 



DINING-ROOM AND PANTRY WORK 187 

is not good for this purpose, it soils easily and the 
chemicals used for bleaching it discolour silver. 

There remains but to say that ideal dining room 
and pantry work combine military order with a 
daintiness which puts pansies into finger bowls. 
That simple loveliness and devoted thoughtfulness 
are more necessary in table service than heavy 
damask and beautiful china. And that, above all, 
one must not think that care and work expended 
upon meals are put to a poor use. Family meals 
are deeply hallowed by long custom and by sacred 
associations. We shall not be wrong to try earnestly 
and gladly to make the meal hours times of loveliness 
and thankfulness and laughter. 



IX 

THE KITCHEN 
(a.) FURNISHINGS 

KITCHENS have shrunk in size since the days 
of our grandmothers, not so much because we 
■ know more than our grandmothers as because 
conditions of Hving have changed. Kitchens are no 
longer used to store winter supplies which must be 
kept from the cold, nor are they now used for laundry 
and dairy work, spinning and sociability. A house 
in which there are many workers, in which there is 
bountiful providing and constant hospitality, still 
needs a large kitchen; on the contrary, an apart- 
ment in which the dining room will barely permit 
six at table may well have a kitchen in which every- 
thing is within hand's reach. 

Many of us have no opportunity to choose whether 
our kitchens shall be large or small. In building 
a new house, however, the opportunity sometimes 
presents itself, and some of the things to consider 
in making the choice are the number of people who 

188 



THE KITCHEN 189 

are to work in the kitchen, the size and elaborateness 
of the meals to be prepared there, whether there 
is to be also a pantry and a store room, whether 
the laundry work is done in the kitchen and whether 
the servant or servants have any other place to sit. 
In regard to these two latter considerations, it may 
be safely said that a small kitchen and a small 
laundry are almost invariably better than a large 
room for both purposes ; and that a tiny kitchen and 
a tiny servants' sitting room are better both for 
health and comfort than a combination. If it is 
possible, the kitchen should be used only for cooking, 
and should contain only such things as are needed 
for that work. 

As a kitchen is a place where especial cleanliness 
is necessary, soap and water should be no enemy 
to its contents. Probably a room lined with glazed 
tiles is the best kitchen, but as yet these are rare. 

Walls and Woodwork. — Hard-finish plaster 
painted some light colour and given a final coating 
of enamel paint is a satisfactory but somewhat 
expensive finish for kitchen walls. 

There are several kinds of wall covering of the 
nature of oilcloth which look rather like tiles and 
may be wiped with water. They are not so good as a 
finish which becomes part of the substance of the walk 



190 HOUSEKEEPING 

Oil and varnish rubbed into plaster walls make 
them light yellow in colour, protect them from being 
discoloured with steam, and produce a surface which 
may be frequently washed. A coating of oil followed 
by a coating of shellac has much the same result. 

Old, rough walls are better covered with a light- 
coloured, very inexpensive paper. If this is coated 
with shellac the walls may be wiped with a damp 
mop. Otherwise the paper should be changed 
frequently. This is the reason it should be inex- 
pensive. It is well always to get a little more kitchen 
paper than is needed, that when necessity arises 
badly soiled pieces may be stripped from the walls 
and new ones fitted into their places. 

I once had a whitewashed kitchen and liked it, 
but it might have looked odd had it opened on a 
fire-escape instead of the wood-pile. 

Two things are chiefly desirable in the finish of 
kitchen walls and woodwork; it ought not to be 
hurt by soap and water and it ought to be light 
coloured. The room is frequently filled with smoke 
or steam which contains some greasiness; this 
can only be removed from the walls and ceiling by 
washing them. People have been known to paint 
kitchens a dark colour with the idea that they showed 
dirt less. Dirt should show. Then there is a better 



THE KITCHEN 191 

chance that it will be removed. Light colours are 
needed in the kitchen also to prevent dark corners, 
and to increase the light from the windows. Much 
sun is a disadvantage to a kitchen; much light is a 
great advantage. A yellow kitchen cheers my soul, 
but many housewives like blue or green better. If 
you do your own work, by all means have the 
kitchen the light colour most becoming to you, and 
get your frocks to match; it's a great help. 

Floors. — The kitchen floor is a greater problem 
than kitchen walls. Even tiles have one disadvan- 
tage, they are cold to stand on. There are a variety 
of substances resembling mosaic or tiling in appear- 
ance which are put down somewhat like cement 
or concrete. They are without cracks and easily 
mopped, but have the same disadvantage of being 
hard and cold. 

A hardwood floor such as one might have in other 
rooms is easily spotted and injured with the things 
which are rather likely to be spilled or set upon it. 
This is true also of a painted floor, with the added 
objection that heels and chair-legs quickly mar 
painted wood. 

Linoleum is easily cared for and with reasonable 
usage lasts well. Oilcloth is less expensive than 
linoleum but is in no way so good. Neither of 



192 HOUSEKEEPING 

these floor coverings, nor paint, should be washed 
with very hot water or with any strong or gritty 
cleaning substance, nor should they be scrubbed 
with a stiff brush. Such treatment breaks and 
spoils glossy surfaces. Wash them with a cloth 
wrung out of mild luke-warm suds. Wipe them 
dry, otherwise they will be streaked. 

When linoleum begins to show wear a coat of 
spar- varnish or carriage varnish will restore it satis- 
factorily. These varnishes are not injured by water, 
and they dry quickly. A floor varnished at night 
in dry weather may be walked on as much as neces- 
sity requires the next day. It is better in such a case 
to lay down papers to walk on, and move them often 
to prevent sticking. 

Sheets of newspaper or brown paper should be 
laid all over a floor before linoleum is put down, 
otherwise it is almost impossible to get it off the 
floor when it is worn out. 

I wish to copy here a suggestion for finishing a 
kitchen floor, for which I would gladly acknowledge 
my indebtedness, but I have merely the paragraph 
signed G. D. which has been cut from some paper. 

Plain, boiled linseed oil is a good finish for the kitchen floor. It 
should be put on when the floor is new or clean of other finish, and 
applied as needed afterward. Such a floor wiU have a pleasing, 



THE KITCHEN 193 

light-brown colour, will not show marks or scratches, and, kept well 
oiled, will not spot with grease. Heat the oil and apply at night, 
rubbing it in well. In the morning wipe with cold water, and the 
floor is ready for use. Wash it with warm water dashed with a little 
kerosene. G. D. 

Just a plain jfloor is a convenient kitchen floor 
on all days except on those when it must be scrubbed. 
Such scrubbing is hard, dirty work and takes a good 
deal of time. And I know of no alleviation; one 
must down on one's knees and go at it with a scrub- 
bing brush or it will look all the time as if it needed 
scrubbing. 

Rugs. — Rugs are needed in the kitchen wherever 
much continued standing is done, as in front of the 
sink and the range or beside the table. They prevent 
linoleum or oilcloth from becoming worn in one or 
two spots, they are sometimes needed for warmth, 
and they are always needed to spare the feet and 
back of the person who does the kitchen work. 
It makes as much difference whether one stands 
for hours on a soft thing or a hard one, as it does 
whether one sleeps for hours on a board or a mattress. 
It is as well if kitchen rugs are of so little value that 
they may frequently be thrown away without regret. 
A good doormat too shabby to put before the front 
door is a treasure to lay before the washtubs. 

The sink. — If the kitchen sink is under or beside 



194 HOUSEKEEPING 

a window, the pots and pans will more surely be clean, 
and the dish washer will not have the irritation of 
working in her own light. Sinks are apt to be set 
too low. For comfort and for health the rim should 
be about even with the dish washer's waist. It 
is convenient to have draining boards on both sides 
of the sink, but by no means always possible. 

Whatever material the sink is made of it will need 
careful cleaning once every day with scouring soap 
or soap-powder and a scrubbing brush. This is not 
only good for the sink but for the waste pipes, espec- 
ially if a pan of hot soapy water is prepared for the 
scouring and emptied down the pipes when the sink 
is finished. This will do much toward keeping the 
pipes from becoming grease clogged. Porcelain or 
enamelled sinks are, of course, more easily kept clean 
than iron or tin ones. 

Tables. — In a kitchen where there is no sink, 
the substitute should be a steady table placed as far 
from the stove as possible. If a definite place is 
appointed for dish washing even to the choice 
between two ends of a table, the appliances needed 
can be hung within reach, and one will naturally 
pile soiled dishes in that place and go there to wash 
them without taking thought about it. 

Besides this table another will be needed on which 



THE KITCHEN 195 

cake and bread can be made, or food can be set with- 
out fear of contact with soiled dishes or dishwater. 
This table is equally necessary in kitchens where 
there is a sink. Sometimes in small kitchens its 
place is taken by the shelf of a dresser, the tops of 
the tubs or a board which, when not in use, folds 
down beside the wall or the dresser. The point is 
to have some place other than the draining boards 
where food can be prepared. 

You will read in magazines that it is lovely to 
have kitchen tables covered with white oilcloth. Un- 
fortunately the statement is not always followed by 
its complement, namely, that such a covering must 
be protected from being scorched and cut by means 
of pot boards, asbestos mats or folded newspapers. 
Several practical cooks and housekeepers have told 
me that there is nothing so good in the kitchen as 
a zinc-covered table. It is not pretty but one need 
never spare it any usage, and at rest times its 
ugliness may be covered with a cloth. Spots on 
zinc which will not yield to soap and water can 
sometimes be removed with vinegar. 

Plain wooden tables are hard to keep in satisfactory 
order. They are easily scorched, easily stained, 
and they require daily scrubbing. 

A pretty kitchen is a pride and delight, but the 



196 HOUSEKEEPING 

serviceableness and practicability of its furnishings 
must be the first consideration in selecting them. 
Things which have to be constantly remembered 
and guarded take too much thought and strength to 
be in place in a workshop. A kitchen should be 
bright, orderly and noticeably clean, but I think 
the less it looks like a sitting room the better. Wher- 
ever it is possible, maids should have some other 
place to sit. 

Chairs. — For much of the kitchen work a woman 
needs the reach, muscular leverage and alertness 
which she gets from standing. There are, however, 
some things such as preparing fruit and vegetables, 
stoning raisins and beating eggs which she can do 
as well sitting down. If the kitchen is as it should 
be, a workshop, stools are the best seats with which 
to furnish it. They may be scrubbed, they take 
up little room, and they afford an opportunity to 
rest, without an accompanying temptation to loiter. 
"Sittin' back" is in some places an equivalent 
phrase for "inactive." It picturesquely explains 
why people work more alertly sitting on stools than 
in chairs. 

If the kitchen is also the maids' sitting room, 
it must have comfortable chairs in it. But they 
should be made of scruhahle materials, and cushions 



THE KITCHEN 197 

should be covered with wash fabrics. Rocking chairs 
are the worst possible kind for a kitchen, they are 
especially irritating to the ankles and temper of the 
cook. 

Shelves. — Shelves are necessary for kitchen com- 
fort. They are for dishes, crockery, utensils which 
can not be hung up and for stores if one has no 
store closet. As it is easier to have things stand 
one deep on shelves, more narrow shelves will be 
needed than wide ones. Some people get along 
with a few shelves for the sake of having them shut 
in with glass doors; others have many shelves like 
open book-cases and keep the pans, dishes, cups 
and bowls turned upside down. Stores have to 
be kept in tightly closed receptacles in either case. 
Most utensils are the better for being kept on open 
shelves or hung on hooks in the light and air. That 
is a rare pot closet which is quite agreeable either 
to eye or nose. 

Shelves painted white, or covered with white oil- 
cloth or white paper, are neat and pleasant to look 
at. Painted ones are probably the least care, they 
have only to be occasionally washed and few things 
injure them. Plain wooden shelves, ought always 
to be covered, as they are easily stained and become 
darkened with dust. 



198 HOUSEKEEPING 

A special shelf or a special place on some shelf 
is needed for receipt books. 

Hooks. — Each utensil which is to be hung up 
should have its own hook. If two or three are hung 
on the same hook, it is difficult to take down the 
undermost article. Rows of hooks should be so 
arranged that the hooks alternate instead of coming 
directly under each other. Pots and kettles which 
are hung up should be turned bottom outward as 
this protects the insides from dust. The lids of 
pots and kettles may be easily hung up on a 
string stretched tightly across the inside of a 
closet door, or against the wall between two 
hooks. The handles rest on the string and hold 
the lids up. 

Either a roller for a hand towel or a hook on which 
one can be hung is a necessary fixture in the kitchen, 
for a cook needs to wash her hands many times a 
day. 

Curtains. — Shades are necessary to modify the 
light and to draw at night, but the case seems to be 
against curtains in the kitchen, even against sash 
curtains. There should be nothing at the windows 
to intercept light and free currents of air, and nothing 
in the room anywhere which catches dust and smoke 
as curtains do. 



THE KITCHEN 199 

Light Fixtures. — Light fixtures are better over- 
head. An additional side light by the sink, or near 
both sink and range when possible is a valuable 
convenience. 

Clock. — A good clock should be part of the kitchen 
furniture for the sake of punctuality. An alarm 
attachment which can be turned ojff before it has 
run completely down is a help to a cook's over- 
burdened memory. If it is set for the time when 
the eggs will be boiled, or the bread or a cake 
must be looked at, or the meat will be roasted, 
there will then be one less thing to remember and 
absence from the kitchen will not so invariably cause 
disaster. 

An Ornament. — If you or the cook would like 
an ornament in the kitchen, the delightful thing 
to have is a copy of a Delia Robbia terra-cotta. 
Bright coloured and washable, like the rest of the 
kitchen! You will laugh perhaps at the idea of 
carrying the matter of brightness and cleanliness 
so far, but do you not know how dingy and depressing 
the kitchens of otherwise clean and lovely houses 
often are.'^ It is because things which might be 
cheerful coloured are dull coloured, and because 
many things are half soiled for the reason that they 
cannot be easily washed. Sometimes too, it is 



200 HOUSEKEEPING 

because nobody cares whether the kitchen is pleasant 
or not. 

(6.) UTENSILS 

The number and size of kitchen utensils depend 
upon the space in which they must be kept and the 
number of persons in the household. Their quality 
and, to some extent, their number depend on what 
we are able to pay for them. 

If the space for keeping utensils is small, their 
number must be kept down to the minimum. Even 
with ample space, it is well now and then to weed 
out superfluous or inadequate utensils, for each adds 
a straw's weight to the work of the kitchen. It is 
only a straw, but you know what happened to the 
camel. 

One woman who entertains a large family at Thanks- 
giving and Christmas, and at other times has a house- 
hold of two with an intermittent maid, buys each 
year at the five and ten cent store the large utensils 
and serving dishes needed for the Thanksgiving 
dinner. She keeps them until after the Christmas 
dinner, then gives them away and returns to her 
usual outfit of small things. Perhaps you ask, 
why not use the big ones all the time instead of 
having two sizes? Because they take more time. 



THE KITCHEN 201 

more food, and in the case of the serving dishes, 
make a poor appearance. A household which con- 
stantly changes in number needs two sizes, one 
small and one large, of each thing in frequent use. 
Of certain things there should be two or three in 
any kitchen; such are, bowls, mixing spoons, 
platters, paring knives, saucepans and double 
boilers. It is well to get such things of different 
kinds and of graduated sizes because they are for 
various uses. 

Materials. — The kitchen is prettier if all the utensils 
are of the same colour and in general of the same 
material. Expense and practical usefulness, how- 
ever, must be considered before good looks. If 
the kitchen is blue, do not buy a bowl with a pink 
band round it, a cake turner with a red handle and 
a brown agate pot, when you can perfectly well 
get them in suitable colours. On the contrary, if 
the brown pot is a more convenient shape and size 
than a blue or white one, get the brown one; if a 
thick iron frying pan cooks food better than a white 
agate one, take the iron one. 

Enamelled utensils are neat, pretty, seldom acted 
upon by chemicals in the food and are cared for 
more easily than those of any other material. They 
are expensive, but last well if they are not abused. 



202 HOUSEKEEPING 

Tin articles are light to handle and cheap, but 
soon become discoloured and require a good deal 
of scouring to keep them in fair condition. 

Iron utensils are heavy, hard to keep clean and 
rarely necessary. 

Pots and pans are now frequently made of 
aluminum. It is a luxury to lift them and they 
are pretty, but they are also costly and easily 
injured. 

Copper utensils have become rare; their chief 
recommendation is beauty. A College kitchen in 
Oxford glowing with rows and rows of copper platters 
and dish covers and pots and kettles remains in 
my memory as a glory and a splendour. But, my 
stars! what generations of scourers have toiled to 
see their crooked images appear in those red-gold 
surfaces ! 

Copper articles have a disadvantage beyond 
requiring much care. If used for food they should 
be tin lined and the lining kept in good condition, 
for sometimes chemicals in food form a poisonous 
combination with the copper. Our ancestors did 
not have to .worry about copper pots. When they 
were poisoned, they drowned a witch or went on 
a pilgrimage, and recovered or not according to their 
constitutions. 



THE KITCHEN 203 

Wooden conveniences for the kitchen, such as 
rolling pins and pastry boards are also gradually 
giving place to those made of other materials, for 
the reason that they are less cleanly and less cool 
than articles made of glass or metal. 

Selection. — The cook's personal preferences should 
be considered whenever kitchen utensils are bought. 
Many housewives consult their cooks before pur- 
chasing new articles. I know one who sends the 
cook to the shop to do the purchasing. That such 
thoughtfulness and care are not always exercised is 
evidenced by the fact that some excellent cooks own 
a number of cooking utensils themselves because 
they do not find them in the kitchens in which they 
work, and can seldom persuade their mistresses to 
buy them. 

The most satisfactory way to get a kitchen outfit 
is to buy a few things at a time. They will in this 
way be more carefully selected, the expense will 
not fall heavily on one week or on one month or even 
on one year, and there will be things new and old. 
To have all new things is only a little less incon- 
venient than to have all old things. 

To give a list of appliances most necessary for 
the kitchen is to make every one who reads it 
wish to improve it. That may be a good reason 



204 



HOUSEKEEPING 



for giving it. Be that as it may, here is such 
a list: 



A teakettle 


A few spoons of diflferent sizes 


A dishpan 
A frying pan 
A coflFee pot 


A few plates, cups and saucers 
A cake box 
A bread box 


A tea pot 


Tin boxes or 


A broiler 


Glass jars for flour, meal, sugar. 


A colander 


coffee, etc. 


A meat chopper 
A pail 


A scrubbing brush 
A sink strainer 


A pastry board 

A rolling pin 

3 mixing bowls 

A meat pan 

A pudding dish 

A bread board 

A bread knife 

2 and 3 qt. saucepans 

2 and 3 qt. double boilers 


A soap shaker 

A holder for scouring soap 

A whisk for dish washing 

A pin cushion which can be hung up 

A memorandum pad which can 

be hung up 
3 pie plates 
2 jelly moulds 
An apple corer 


A cake tin 


A few knives and forks 


3 tins for layer cake 
3 bread tins 
A cake turner 


A large wooden spoon 
A large agate spoon 
A knife for potatoes 


A can opener 

A lemon squeezer 

A corkscrew 

A fine-wire strainer 


A large tray 
A salt box 
A pepper box 
A flour dredger 


A potato masher 


1 doz. dish towels 


An egg beater 


6 scrub cloths 


A nutmeg grater 

A graduated quart measure 

A graduated pint measure 


2 pudding cloths 

6 cloths for pots and pans 

Scissors 



Does it seem a very long list ? You would not 
cook one day in a kitchen fitted with these things 
without thinking of something else you would like 
to have. This is an austere list. It contains none 



THE KITCHEN 205 

of the luxuries which one's heart desires, such as 
tongs for hulling strawberries. 

Care. — Pots and pans require thorough washing 
and wiping. Wash them with a brush, good hot 
soapsuds, and occasional applications of a scouring 
soap. Wipe them with squares of cheese cloth or 
old flour and sugar bags washed and hemmed for 
the purpose. These cloths are better than finer 
or heavier ones for they take up water quickly and 
are no great loss if they are darkened by tin or iron 
utensils. The dishcloth is the poorest thing with 
which to wipe pots and pans, for It cannot possibly 
be free from soap and grease. 

Scouring soap is not intended for direct application. 
A brush or cloth should first be rubbed on the soap, 
then on the article to be scoured. 

Only utensils made of iron may be scraped. Such 
treatment quickly defaces and wears out other sub- 
stances. Scraping may be entirely avoided If every 
utensil is filled with water as soon as It Is no longer 
needed in cooking. Very greasy things should be 
filled with warm water and kept warm. If a pot 
has been burned put a tablespoonful of washing-soda 
into it and fill it with water. Set it away for a day 
or a night, or for both, and at the end of the time 
no scraping will be necessary to get it clean. This 



206 HOUSEKEEPING 

must not be done if the pot is made of aluminum 
in that case, soak the pot without soda. 

Stains may usually be removed from aluminum 
pots with silver-soap. Whitening such pots with 
acids is not a very wise thing to do. The better 
way is to reserve them for delicate uses, they will 
then not become seriously discoloured. 

Do not wash articles made of wood in water in which 
other things have been washed, for wood absorbs 
grease. Nor is it well to scour them with a brush 
or a soap coarse enough to roughen their surfaces. 

Iron pots and pans cannot be scrubbed too vigor- 
ously. Scrub the frying pan until the inside feels 
like wet, black satin; it is then truly clean. Both 
powdered pumice-stone and salt are good for scouring 
iron or tin articles which are smoked or stained. 

Unless precautions are taken, food fried or baked 
in new pans will stick to them, and will not brown. 
A new iron frying pan should be scrubbed hard with 
soap and sand or ashes, and should then have water 
boiled in it. New cake and bread tins should be 
scoured, greased and baked. 

If you find that the kettle is becoming encrusted 
with lime from the water, boil vinegar in it. This 
quickly removes the encrustation if it has not been 
allowed to grow thick before the attempt is made. 



THE KITCHEN 207 

A careful housewife does not wash coffee pots 
and tea pots in dish water. She empties them, 
rinses them, scours them a little if they need it, 
rinses them again, scalds them and finally wipes them 
dry. 

The care of some kitchen contrivances begins 
before they are bought. That is, when buying such 
articles as potato mashers, egg beaters and their like, 
notice whether they have intricacies which will be 
hard to keep clean. Do not be dazzled by the 
marvellous mashing or beating performed by a 
demonstrator, but take the thing in your own hand 
and see whether it is smooth and simple, and whether 
there is a way in which it can be easily washed. 

It can be said of kitchen dish washing even more 
emphatically than of pantry dish washing, that 
going into it up to one's neck is no virtue; better 
keep out of it as much as possible. To make the 
work easy, to divest it of disgust, and even to find 
satisfaction in doing it, are evidences of skill and 
cleverness. 

If one does not take the satisfaction in making 
things clean previously referred to, or if one has not 
pleasant thoughts to think while washing pots, then 
one may pass the time like a rhythmic black mammie 
and croon and croon a tune which has no end. 



X 

THE CELLAR. FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 

IT IS more healthful to have a cellar — a clean 
cellar — under a house than not to have one. 
And why.? 

Soil has air in it. Sometimes it is good air, some- 
times bad air. The soil newly turned up in the 
fields gives off a fragrance of its own. The earth 
thrown out on the city pavement by a man looking 
for a leak in a drain gives off an odour which makes 
one hurry one's steps. The soil under a house gives 
off vapours and gases in the same way, good or bad 
according to location. Inasmuch as we cannot 
watch the air under the house as we can that in a 
room and would not always know its quality if we 
could, it has been found better to dig out a chamber 
under the house and line it with stones or cement, or 
even leave it just a hole in the earth into which air 
can be admitted. For this allows a circulation of 
upper air under the house which is safer to have there 
than air from the soil. 

The more we can shut out the breath of the soil in 

208 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 209 

towns and cities the better, for such soil is full of 
drains and gas pipes, and the dirt of streets and 
crowded houses, and sometimes has buried in it cess- 
pools and leaking sewers. Unpleasant to think of ? 
Yes, but the thought does very well as a spur to make 
one keep the cellar clean and dry. 

A cellar sealed with cement is the best kind, 
because the soil-air is shut out unless there comes a 
crack in the cement. Walls of stone laid in cement 
are good but not so good, and brick walls are not 
nearly so good. Stones are a little porous and 
bricks very porous. Sooner or later moisture comes 
through either. In the country one often sees 
cellars with hard earth floors and they are fairly 
sanitary as long as the soil surrounding the house is 
used only for cleanly purposes. But before plumb- 
ing is put into the house or a sewer into the neigh- 
bourhood the cellar should be cemented. 

I have seen cellar windows which would not open. 
They ought to open easily and one at least should 
be opened for a while every day that it is not snowing 
or raining. They ought also, to be kept as clean as 
other windows are, for light is necessary to the health- 
fulness of the cellar. Have the window openings cov- 
ered with wire netting, strong enough on the one hand 
and fine enough on the other to exclude cats and flies. 



210 HOUSEKEEPING 

Every cellar without any exception whatever 
should be white. White! 

They may be painted white or whitewashed white. 
There are also substances of the nature of calcimine 
which are somewhat crystalline, and are therefore 
especially good for whitening dark cellars. 

Whitewash is often decried because it rubs off 
upon things which touch it and also because flakes 
of it fall upon the floor and into uncovered receptacles. 
If a little size or thin glue is put into whitewash its 
objectionableness in these ways is much lessened, 
and comes to weigh little against its excellent recom- 
mendations; it is purifying, it destroys the eggs of 
insects, it is inexpensive and it requires no special 
skill to apply it. There are a few words on this last 
point in the chapter on housecleaning. 

Whatever is done to the cellar walls should be 
done over again once or twice a year. There is 
much dust, much dampness and much need for more 
cleanliness even in the cleanest cellars. 

It is more convenient if the cellar is divided into 
rooms, that food and stores of various kinds may be 
kept separate from the furnace and the fuel. If 
this is not possible, the next best thing is to 
have the coalbin enclosed, for the coal makes 
the worst of the cellar dirt. There should be a 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 211 

window in the coalbin through which the coal can 
be put in. 

One needs shelves in the cellar and receptacles 
for vegetables. The shelves are better fastened to 
supports attached to the ceiling than put against the 
walls. There are then no cracks and corners, for 
dust, and the shelves are removed from the possible 
dampness of the wall. Some people advocate the 
building of bins for vegetables. This is probably 
advisable if one must store many. For keeping only 
a few, neat boxes or baskets which may be moved 
about, are better. If one keeps food in the cellar, a 
cupboard or safe made of wire netting is a con- 
venience. It should stand on legs which raise it 
two or three feet off the floor. If preserves and 
jellies are kept in the cellar, it is desirable to have a 
cupboard more completely enclosed than the safe, 
to protect them from dust, quick changes of tem- 
perature and dampness. 

Shelves, cupboards, bins and partitions should be 
as white as the walls. 

The housewife pays a visit to the cellar now and 
then with no errand except to look at it. The sur- 
vey may give her housewifely satisfaction, and it 
may give her something to do or to have done. She 
should go with nose alert and eye keen. 



212 HOUSEKEEPING 

Is there any odour noticeable beyond that slight 
unavoidable cellar smell ? If there is, is it a spoiled 
sweet potato, or clam, or a working jar of canned 
fruit, or — what? Find it; never rest while there 
is an objectionable smell in the cellar. 

Is there a damp spot on walls or floor? If there 
is the cause must be found and put an end to. If 
there is one near the place where the waste pipes 
leave the house which cannot be accounted for, send 
for a plumber. 

Is there any article out of its place ? Is there any 
pile of things which might be looked over and in part 
thrown away ? Is there any rubbish ? Is the wood 
piled evenly ? Is the coalbin swept up ? Are the 
vegetables in boxes or bins and not on the floor or in 
corners ? Are there cobwebs ? Does the floor need 
sweeping ? Are the windows clean and some of them 
open ? 

If, in spite of everything one can do, the cellar 
smells a little musty, some unslacked lime put in a 
box on the floor will help it. In a cellar with an earth 
floor it is well sometimes to sprinkle lime in the 
corners and in out-of-the-way places where it will 
not be walked upon. 

Things which must stand permanently in the 
cellar are the better for having racks to stand upon. 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 213 

Barrels, ashcans, kerosene cans and cases con- 
taining bottles sometimes ooze moisture, sometimes 
absorb moisture from the floor; their bottoms thus 
become sodden and mouldy. 

Slats nailed on cross-pieces and laid on the floor 
for such things to stand upon, make the cellar and 
its contents more cleanly and more dry. They are 
a contrivance of great use and simply obtained. It 
is, of course, pleasant to have them made by a car- 
penter, but three discarded bedslats nailed on the 
flat sides of some short pieces of floor joist make a 
rack that will hold two barrels, and small racks can 
be made in a few minutes from the boards of a box 
cover nailed on the cleats that have held the box 
together. 

When the cellar floor is swept be sure to use some- 
thing, preferably not water, to lay the dust. This is 
especially necessary when the furnace is in use. 
Dampened sawdust is good for this purpose. 

THE PLUMBING 

Before settling down to live in a place, one should 
know where the water supply comes from, and where 
waste water goes. If the water supply in a city or 
town comes from a far away stream or an artesian 



214 HOUSEKEEPING 

well, and the health of the comniunity is fairly good, 
one may rest content. If, however, the water is 
notably or probably polluted, one should boil or at 
least filter water for drinking and cooking and in 
every way possible safeguard the family health from 
this source of danger. 

A sewerage system which does not carry the waste 
a long distance away from any dwelling is not a very 
good system. If one must depend upon such a 
system it is well to do and say everything possible 
to have it improved. 

If you live in a country place and must depend on 
a surface well for water, you must guard it. Have 
it cleaned at regular intervals; have the cover or 
platform over the mouth such that no creatures can 
get in, nor water or dust fall through; allow no 
rubbish nor waste water to be thrown near it; keep 
it well pumped off and see that pigpens, barnyards, 
poultryyards and closets are as far off as possible. 
The custom of keeping butter or other food cool by 
hanging it down the well is picturesque, but I can think 
of no other recommendation of the practice. Keep 
everything out of the well from frogs to custard pies. 

Certain very simple natural laws have been taken 
advantage of in getting water in and out of houses. 
It is an old axiom that water will not run up hill, and 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 215 

one would not expect it to run up a house, but another 
old axiom saves us from carrying rivers upstairs in 
pails — namely, water seeks its level. 

If water is poured into a U-shaped tube, it will 
stand just as high in one side of the U as in the 
other, will it not.? When a house is supplied with 
water from a spring on the side of a hill, we have a 
^prt'nff big irregular U-tube 

III I like this dotted line. 

"""■'■- ' As even the garret of 

this house is lower than the spring, the water will 
have force when it comes from the pipes, that is, 
it could yet go higher because it has not run as 
far up in the U on the house side, as it is on the 
spring side. Sometimes, as we approach a town, we 
see a water tower on a hill, or a tall iron stand-pipe. 
They are one side of a U in a water system. Water 
is pumped into the tower or the stand-pipe, then 
it runs into the houses of the town through many 
pipes which are the other side of the TJ. There is a 
library of books one may read about this U per- 
formance — its relation to other laws, its limitations 
and the thousand uses to which it has been put. 
But all there is to the simple, extraordinary fact, can 
be seen in a bent glass tube which you can hold in 
your hand. 



216 HOUSEKEEPING 

The side of the U which comes into a town is no 
longer one pipe but many water mains in streets and 
multitudes of little pipes in each house. These last 
are part of the house plumbing. A plan of the house 
with the position of all the pipes indicated should 
be one of the housekeeper's possessions. She may 
not be able to do much about disordered plumbing 
— in fact, she had better not try to do much ; it is 
not a safe direction for amateur effort — but such a 
plan is of use to workmen who come to do jobs in 
the house, and it may keep some zealous husband or 
brother from driving a nail into a gas pipe in an 
effort to hang a picture. 

Water is frequently got out of the house by giving 
it a good start and then letting it run down accord- 
ing to its nature. Waste pipes are as far as possible 
perpendicular, and the start is given the water by 
the weight of a basin or a tubful, or by the sudden 
emptying of the tank of the closet. 

That principle of the U, however, is used also in 
the disposal of waste water. It is the principle on 
which many traps are constructed. Traps are con- 
trivances for closing the connection between a house 
and the public sewer. If you have an imagination, 
or if you will read Victor Hugo's description of the 
Paris sewers in "Les Miserables" as a help to 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 217 

imagination, it will not be necessary to explain why 
this connection should be closed. 

To make a trap with what is known as a water- 
seal, the U pipe is turned into an S fallen forward, w. 

Under the basin in the 

•"l-t— /^^^scNc — h/^tZi^tlsPWl bathroom one can see 

the waste pipe and can 
imagine where the water is inside. It flows out of 
the basin into the first loop of the S, rises into and 
flows over the other loop until the basin and pipe are 
emptied as far as a. The water has then no power to 
force itself beyond the loop6,and stays in the first loop, 
forming a water seal between the sewer and the outlet 
of the basin. Through that loop water gases and 
odours cannot come, and across the loop at 6, impure 
substances and water cannot force their way back 
from a lower level. 

It is well to rinse a basin, sink or tub after it is 
used, and one must be particular that the closet 
flushes generously, for the water left in the loop 
should be clean water. If one merely allows the 
water from tub or basin to sink through t]\e outlet 
some of that water remains in the loop, and it is water 
which contains impurities washed from clothes or 
bodies. You see the practice of rinsing bathtubs 
and basins has more in it even than courtesy. 



218 HOUSEKEEPING 

Occasionally, clean, hot, strong suds should be 
emptied down basins, tubs, sinks and closets and 
allowed to stand in the loop, as this cleanses the 
pipe from impurities or grease which may have 
adhered to its sides. Disinfectant may be used in 
the same way when it is thought to be needed. Strong 
disinfectant should not be left long in a trap as it may 
eat the joints or even the substance of the pipes. On 
the other hand, in judging the quantity to use, allow- 
ance must be made for the fact that disinfectant 
poured down pipes goes into water, into a good deal 
of water in the case of the closet. 

Two things sometimes make traps ineffectual. 
One is that the loop may not be deep enough. An 

S like this, for instance, is 
useless. So much water can 
^^ fv'at^t leyel flow out that an air passage 
is left at a, and the pipe is 
not sealed. The other thing is that sometimes the 
suction of water rushing down from an upper 
story will draw the water out of the traps it 
passes on the way. Either of these difficulties 
can only be remedied by an alteration in the 
plumbing arrangements. The concern of the house- 
keeper in the matter is not to rest if the waste pipes 
give off the least odour, and to get as reliable a per- 




THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 219 

son as possible to inspect them. To have good 
plumbing is worth going without much. In truth, 
it is the last thing in which to exercise econ- 
omy. In building a new house, it is better to have 
no rugs, no table-linen, and to leave two rooms 
unfurnished or unbuilt than to put in cheap plumbing. 

Besides the traps under basins, sinks, etc., there 
is usually a trap wherever a drain-pipe runs out of 
the house to the street sewer. This doubles the 
protection. These traps are sometimes outside the 
foundation wall, sometimes in the wall and occa- 
sionally inside the cellar. One should know where 
they are in case anything is the matter with them, 
and also in order that one may not put up a shelf 
for milk, or a bin for potatoes directly over the spot 
where a trap is. 

Drainage systems always have to be ventilated. 
A pipe which extends out of the roof of the house, or 
runs up the side beyond the eaves, or comes up 
from the foundation or the lawn with a hood over 
it, is a ventilator for the drainage. They help to 
make the air pressure right in the pipes and they 
prevent the gathering of foul explosive gases. As 
they are vents for such things, one does not want 
them close to a roof window, nor under a veranda, 
nor anywhere except in the open upper air. 



2^0 HOUSEKEEPING 

Ashes and Garbage. — To say that only liquid sub- 
stances should be poured down waste-pipes seems 
a needless repetition of what everybody knows, yet 
it is knowledge constantly disregarded and some- 
times forgotten even by careful people. Waste 
substances not suitable for the pipes have to be some- 
what classified. Cities and towns have different 
regulations for the disposal of waste and sometimes 
one is required to do a good deal of sorting in com- 
pliance. There are, however, three general classes 
of waste; ashes, garbage and trash. 

Nothing should be put into ashcans except ashes. 
Garbage is the waste from food, or any substances 
which are wet or subject to decomposition. Trash 
is papers, cans, bottles, egg shells, glass, hair, dust, 
broken objects of all sorts and kindred things. This 
class may have to be subdivided several times for 
the convenience of people who remove it, but the 
three main divisions in house waste are made not 
on account of requirement but for the sake of neat- 
ness and decency. 

For all these things it is preferable to have covered 
cans; for garbage it is necessary. In a house, ash- 
cans will usually be kept in the cellar convenient 
to the furnace. Trash receptacles can be kept 
there also. They should be covered, and large 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 221 

enough, to hold the trash without spilling. Garbage 
cans should be kept outside the house if possible. 
Often a little place can be built for them close to 
the back door, enclosed in an area or on a back 
porch. Such an enclosure needs some means of 
ventilation and should be periodically scrubbed, 
then disinfected with chloride of lime or some such 
thing. In flats or apartments, where the garbage can 
must be kept in the kitchen, it is a good plan to wrap 
the garbage in many thicknesses of newspaper and 
put these bundles into the can. When this method 
is employed the can is less unpleasant and less 
difficult to clean. This cleaning is disagreeable 
work but it must be done or the can will become 
exceedingly offensive. One is fortunate if such 
work may be done out of doors. First rinse the can 
with cold water and, if necessary, assist the process 
with a wad of newspaper tied on a stick. Pour the 
rinse-water on the ground or through a sink strainer. 
Then pour into the can a liberal allowance of hot 
water and put some strong washing powder into it. 
Rub the sides and bottom of the can with an old 
brush or broom kept for the purpose. Pour out the 
water, rinse the can with clean water and ammonia 
and begin its usefulness again by putting into it the 
contents of the sink-strainer or the scraps that you 



222 HOUSEKEEPING 

gather off the ground where the first rinse- water was 
poured. 

The disposal of various forms of house waste in 
country places usually requires more care and atten- 
tion than the same matter in cities and town. One 
gets little outside help, and the customary methods 
are often untidy and unsanitary. 

Water may be poured on grass or flower beds 
or on the ground, if one is careful not to put it in the 
same place with any frequency. Soapy water thrown 
on garden paths will help to keep the weeds from 
growing. Water from an ice-cream freezer is good 
for the same purpose. Wash water, or water carried 
down from bedrooms should never be thrown on a 
vegetable garden. One cannot be sure that the 
earth, and the air, and the rain will take up the impur- 
ities soon enough to keep the vegetables from being 
contaminated. 

Some garbage can be buried; some can be burned. 
A weekly bonfire is an excellent thing in places 
where there is no regular means for disposing of 
waste. Into it can go most of the trash and some 
of the garbage in the shape of vegetable husks and 
parings, and other things not very moist. 

A little care on the part of the housewife will 
make an outdoor closet an entirely sanitary con- 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 223 

venience. It should be made as cleanly as possible 
inside and out by means of paint or calcimine, and 
frequent scrubbing of all its wooden fittings. One 
of these fittings should be a good-sized box with a 
scoop or fire shovel to go with it. This box should 
be kept filled with earth — not ashes — of which a 
liberal quantity should be put down the closet when- 
ever it has been used. An earth closet, as it is called, 
if carefully looked after, is never offensive. No 
waste water should ever be emptied down such a 
closet, and depth should not be obtained by digging 
out the ground under the building, because rain water 
will gather in the depression thus made. The 
interior of the closet should be shallow and earth- 
covered. These two characteristics make frequent 
removals of the contents necessary; this is trouble- 
some but sanitary. 

FIKES 

To make and manage fires one must understand 
them. They are simple and easy to understand, 
but they are also capable of giving a person who is 
unacquainted with their ways great trouble and 
anxiety. 

A Wood Fire. — A wood fire on the hearth is the 
simplest one in a house. Can you make it? One 



224 HOUSEKEEPING 

must have in the first place, a hearth, a flue and a 
draught. The hearth is merely a place in the floor 
laid with stone or brick to put the fire on. A flue 
is a chimney or a part of a chimney over the hearth 
to carry off the smoke and to increase the draught. 
The desperate aborigine who sprang up weeping 
and choking with smoke and chopped a hole in his 
new bark roof, discovered that it not only let out the 
smoke but made the fire burn better. It made a 
draught. The draught is the air that draws up the 
chimney. It is caused chiefly by the fact that warm 
air rises. The air in a room draws up the chimney 
if it is warmer than outside air, and when a fire is 
lighted and the air at the bottom of the chimney 
becomes very hot, it draws up hard and quickly. 
Sometimes when a fire smokes people say, "The 
chimney is cold," that is, the chimney is so cold that 
the hot air ascending becomes chilled and heavy 
before it reaches the top of the chimney, and does 
not draw out hard and quickly enough to make a 
strong draught. So the smoke stays down instead 
of going up, and the fire does not burn well. The 
remedy is to burn as much paper and light, dry wood 
on the hearth as you can until the chimney is warmed 
a little. 

If there are a hearth, a flue and a draught, the next 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 225 

thing to observe is whether there are ashes on the 
hearth from a former fire. If there are a few, brush 
them together into a neat, flat pile under the flue 
and against the back of the chimney. If there are 
many, remove some, but never all unless you do not 
expect to have a fire again for a long time. Ashes 
hold heat. They are soon warmed by the new fire, 
and help to keep the coals hot. Just as a *'cozy" 
keeps heat in a tea pot and a fur coat keeps heat in 
you. 

Place the andirons straight and close enough 
together to support the average length of the wood. 
If one can get a big heavy piece of wood, that should 
first be put in at the back of the hearth. 

On the bed of ashes between the andirons or on 
the bare hearth put paper crushed into soft balls. 

If the kindling is little sticks, lay the fire by the 
pig-sty method. That is, on the soft paper balls 
lay two little sticks parallel with the andirons, then 
two more little sticks with their ends crossing the 
ends of the first pair, tt keep on doing this, laying 
the sticks first in one direction then in the other until 
the sty is two or three rails high. Then lay two 
larger sticks in an X on the top and the fire is ready 
for lighting. 

If the kindling is blocks and shavings scatter 



226 HOUSEKEEPING 

them loosely over the paper balls, keeping it all in a 
small space but not packing or crushing it together 
in the very least. 

When we light a fire or blow a fire, we do so from 
the bottom because it is the draught sweeping up 
through the fuel which makes it ignite and burn. 
The fuel should therefore be laid loosely with many 
cracks and holes for air. The advantage of mak- 
ing paper into balls is that one cannot pack balls 
closely. 

Light the fire from a light or from another fire 
or with a match. This is the shortest and simplest 
act in fire making, but the most extraordinary. 
It would take some one wiser than three philosophers, 
four scientists and twelve owls to tell you what the 
flame is which springs up on the hearth. A spring- 
ing flame has remained through all time such a 
mystery and wonder, that the poet, the musician 
and the devotee have woven it into rhythm, and 
music, and worship — and what is more, a boy and 
a fox terrier will keep still before it for half an hour. 

When the fire is lighted, first the paper burns 
easily and quickly, then the small pieces of kindling 
light more slowly and burn more slowly, and from 
them the small pieces of wood light yet more slowly 
and burn yet longer, and when they are really burn- 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 227 

ing one may put on the ordinary sticks, leaving 
always cracks between for the air and flames to draw 
through. Three sticks are needed to keep a good 
fire; a heavy one at the back, in front of it a stick 
almost burned through and a fresh one. 

The person who lays the fire, unless she is expert, 
should light it. There is no way of learning how 
to lay it, nor of finding out the peculiarities of the 
fireplace and the fuel, except by seeing how the fire 
acts when it is lighted. 

A Coal Fire. — The coal fire in the kitchen in no 
way differs in principle from the wood fire on the 
hearth. The arrangements for it, though, are 
different. A range or a stove holds the fire instead 
of the hearthstone. The smoke and draught, 
instead of going directly up the flue, are led to it by 
a stove pipe. The draught must get into the stove 
in order to go up through the fire into the chimney. 

The reason that a fire in a stove is more 
difficult to understand is that we have several 
contrivances for regulating and utilizing the heat. 
Most of these are called draughts or dampers. 
One knows from the words what they are for; 
the draughts let in draught at the bottom of the 
fire, the dampers in some way damp the ardour 
of the fire. 



228 HOUSEKEEPING 

Stoves or ranges even of the same make are rarely 
exactly alike, but one can learn to manage the 
draughts and dampers in a few minutes' examina- 
tion by keeping in mind the fixed principle that a 
stream of air enters under the fire, flows through 
the fire and passes out through the chimney. That 
to make the fire hot, we do our utmost to remove 
obstructions from the stream; that to deaden the 
fire, we obstruct the stream as much as we can. 
If we want the range hotter, we open a door or slide 
open some slits which will let in air underneath the 
fire, and we open the damper in the stove pipe, that 
is we make as much passage-way for draught through 
the pipe as we can. If we want the range less 
hot, we let in air on top of the fire, and shut the 
pipe damper, that is, the space for the draught to 
go up the pipe is made smaller and air coming 
in on top of the fire meets and checks air coming 
from underneath. 

The terms used in regard to regulating fires are 
confusing. When people say open the draughts, 
they mean let the stream of air flow unobstructed, 
but it is often accomplished by shutting something, 
such as the slits at the top of the fire, and any open- 
ing in the stove pipe. The reverse is also true. 
Shutting the draughts means obstructing the stream 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 

of air, and often requires opening places which let 
in air going in a contrary direction to the regular 
draught, such as, openings in the pipe and at the 
top of the fire. This is the reason that it is better 
to get the principle of the draught thoroughly in 
mind and then work the dampers and draughts in 
accord with it, rather than to follow blindly directions 
which may utterly mislead. 

Pipe dampers are sometimes inside the pipe with 
only a little handle outside. Such a damper is a 
circle of iron with a small hole in the middle. When 
the handle is vertical, the circle is vertical and the 
pipe is open. When the handle is horizontal, the 
circle is horizontal, and the pipe closed except for 
the small hole in the circle. 

Besides dampers which regulate the amount of 
heat, there are oven dampers which regulate its 
direction. An oven damper is a contrivance by 
which heat is directed over or under or around the 
oven. When the oven is to be used, the heat is 
directed there; when it is not, the heat is allowed to 
concentrate elsewhere. These oven contrivances 
are not usually visible, and are worked by a handle 
on the outside of the stove. Sometimes directions 
for moving the handle are on it; if not, one must 
experiment to find out what happens. 



230 HOUSEKEEPING 

No one can cook with any certainty until she 
thoroughly understands the stove or range used. 
This is best done by "making it work"; opening 
everything which will open, turning everything which 
will turn, finding out what everything is for, taking 
things apart and putting them together again with 
"'satiable curiosity." If one does this before the 
fi.re is lighted, and then lights the fire, there will be 
few mysteries left unsolved. 

Though the principles to be remembered in light- 
ing a coal fire in a stove are the same as those which 
govern the lighting of the wood fire on the hearth, 
there are some variations in the process and some 
additional acts to perform. 

If there are ashes in the stove they must be dumped 
and removed. They cannot warm the coals as in 
the hearth fire, and if left under the grate they 
obstruct the draught. The fire maker is fortunate 
if the grate of the stove is so constructed that the 
ashes may be dumped. If this is not the case the 
grate must be shaken until it is empty. That as 
little dust as possible may come out into the 
room, close all the openings in the stove before 
beginning to shake the grate and do not open 
them again until a few minutes after the shaking 
is over. 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 231 

Lay in the grate of the stove a wood fire 
like the one on the hearth: balls of paper, loose 
kindling, larger sticks crossed, and all with 
many cracks between. But in addition sprinkle 
over the top a fire-shovelful of coal. Be generous 
with kindling and wood: it takes strong heat to 
ignite coal. 

Just before lighting the fire see that the stream 
of air is unobstructed ; all the openings at the bottom 
of the fire open, all the openings at the top shut, the 
pipe unobstructed, and the heat directed away 
from the oven. 

Light the fire from below; this is often most 
easily accomplished by crushing up a sheet of news- 
paper, putting it under the grate and lighting it. 
When the sticks are really burning, put on another 
shovelful of coal and as soon as this begins to ignite, 
put on two more. Much coal put on at a time 
smothers the fire. 

In spite of frequent and terrible accidents people 
persist in lighting fires with kerosene. It is more 
sensible never to do it, but if you sometimes do, at 
least do it in a sensible way, that is, soak wood or 
paper in the oil and put it into the grate, then lay the 
fire as usual. Never, never bring the oil can near the 
range at any time or for any purpose. Almost 



232 HOUSEKEEPING 

invariably the use of oil to light the fire is an indica- 
tion of laziness or ignorance. 

It is more economical of time and fuel to 
keep the kitchen fire over than to let it out every 
night. In a good stove, fire which is properly 
raked and cared for can be kept week after 
week, month after month, just as it can be kept 
in a furnace. 

The daily care required by a coal fire is outlined 

below: 

At night, the fire should be thoroughly raked 
and coal enough put on to last until after 
breakfast. Leave the draughts open a few minutes 
until the gas has burned off, then shut them for 
the night. 

The first thing in the morning, open all the 
draughts and get the fire well up. It ought not 
be necessary to put on coal. 

After breakfast, rake the fire thoroughly, put on 
coal and empty the ashes. 

After luncheon put on as much coal as will 
be necessary to produce a good fire at dinner 
time. 

When a hot fire is needed for many hours feed 
it with a few coals at a time; this will not deaden 
the fire and yet will keep it from burning out. A 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 233 

fire which shows red underneath and has a 
few black coals on top is in a healthy condition. 
As soon as all the coals are red the heat begins 
to wane. 

The Furnace Fire. — The ability to run the kitchen 
fire will enable the housewife to tend the furnace 
occasionally. If, however, she wishes to care for it 
regularly, she will need to seek instruction from some 
competent person who can show her the use of the 
particular draughts, gauges, thermometers and other 
indicators by which the fire and the steam or water 
are regulated. 

A skilled person's aim in managing a furnace is 
perfect regularity. Necessary care should be given 
it every day at the same hours, and the fire should 
be kept as far as possible in the same condition. It 
is injurious to the fire and to the furnace to attend 
to it too often or not often enough; and the house 
will never be evenly heated if the fire is first allowed 
to get very low and is then urged to an unusual 
height. 

Stoves, furnaces and chimneys need occasional 
cleaning. Furnaces should be cleaned when the 
fire is let out in the spring, and carefully looked 
over in the fall by a competent man. Ranges which 
are not used in the summer should be treated in the 



234 HOUSEKEEPING 

same way. Other ranges should be cleaned and 
looked over once a year. 

At some time when the kitchen fire is out the 
inside of the stove should be swept, and the dust 
removed through an opening for the purpose in the 
back or side of the stove. 

About once a year all the flues in the house ought 
to be cleaned. This is for two reasons, one, because 
the soot with which they become coated is a non- 
conductor of heat and keeps the chimneys from 
warming quickly; the other, because soot is inflam- 
able. When we say a chimney is on fi^re, we mean 
that the soot on the inside is burning. It makes a 
terrifying roar, but don't stop to listen to it. Shut 
all the openings in the stove. Throw salt on the 
fire. If there is a fireplace instead of a stove at the 
bottom of the chimney close the opening in some way. 
This may sometimes be done with a rug or a thick 
newspaper held tightly stretched over the opening 
of the chimney. It must cover the whole opening 
and must not be allowed to draw in on the fire. 
The point is to keep the air from rushing up the 
chimney to feed the fire. This is done by shutting 
out the air and by sending up gas from the burning 
salt which is inimical to fire. 

Gas Range. — A gas range is a much simpler 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 235 

matter from a miechanical point of view than one 
in which coal is burned. There is little to do except 
keep it clean. It is lighted as any gas burner is 
lighted, though preferably with a taper instead of 
a match, for in that case your hand is not near enough 
to be burned by the first leap of the flame. Fix 
firmly in mind which one of the little cocks supplies 
each burner, and also that the cocks turn to the left 
to supply the gas, to the right to turn it off. If when 
a burner is lighted, it "burns back" with a roaring 
noise, turn the gas off and wait a moment or two 
before lighting it again. It will then light in the 
usual way. 

The iron sheet under the top burners needs wash- 
ing about once in two days, oftener if anything is 
spilled or boils over into it. More occasionally the 
burners should be washed and the holes all made 
clear with a wire or a broom straw. It does not 
hurt any part of a gas range to wash it; it does it 
good. Some people prefer not to black their ranges. 
The loss in appearance is made up for in the com- 
fort of not having the range rub off black on hands 
or cloths. 

The rack and drip pans for broiling must be 
washed every time they are used; otherwise, the 
grease left on them will smell and smoke and 



£36 HOUSEKEEPING 

sometimes catch fire if the oven burners are lighted. 
It is well to rub the grease off the grate and the drip 
pan with a paper while they are still hot, it makes 
them easier to wash. 

Sometimes the fat in this drip-pan catches fire 
while the broiling is yet going on. Usually people 
draw out the pan and blow out the blaze, but this 
is dangerous. Milk poured directly on the flame 
with a big spoon will quench it. 

LIGHT AND WATER 

Watch the bills which come in for light and water. 
If they vary considerably and for no discoverable 
cause, or if they seem unreasonably large, have some 
one come and see if there are leaks, if the metres 
register correctly, and if they have been correctly 
read and the bills made in accordance with the 
readings. 

Light bills naturally increase from June to Decem- 
ber and decrease from December to June. They 
will be larger in a stormy month than in a bright 
one, and in an apartment with dark rooms than in 
one without. Water bills will be larger if the wash- 
ing is done in the house than if it is not. Both light 
and water bills will be somewhat larger if the num- 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 237 

ber of people in the household is increased. These 
things and any other household changes must be 
considered in accounting for variations in light and 
water bills. 

The cost of both these commodities can usually 
be kept within bounds by avoiding waste, such as 
burning a reading light by which no one is reading, 
or five lights in the ceiling, two of which would not 
be missed, or neglecting to turn off range burners 
until five or ten minutes after the cooking is finished, 
or leaving faucets half turned on, or running the 
tub and basin over every time they are used. Some- 
times a reasonable carefulness in such things saves 
the necessity of stricter economy. 

The man who comes to read your gas, water or 
electric metres will usually be willing to teach you 
how to read them, if you ask as if you wanted infor- 
mation and not as if you wanted to catch him in a 
mistake. I might say here that plumbers, carpenters 
and furnace men if approached in the same way often 
prove very instructive. They are human, and 
can rarely resist the treat of giving information when 
the chance is offered to them. One can learn a 
great quantity of useful mechanics from them, besides 
things about their wives and children, both amusing 
and edifying. 



238 HOUSEKEEPING 

These are pictures of a gas-metre at the beginning 
and end of a month. 

The hands on the dials move in the directions the 
arrows indicate. Read the number last passed by 
the hand on each dial, beginning with the one farthest 




CUBIC \::±:y FEET 
iooThousand ioTmousano I Thousand 





CUBIC "^^iir^ FEET 
iooThousano ioTmousand I Thousand 




to the left and add two ciphers, x reads 57600; y 
reads 63800. The difference is the amount of gas 
used in the month. 

If you cannot take the two ciphers on faith, there 
is another way of reading the metre. Observe the 
words over each dial. Dial c is in the hundreds mov- 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 239 

ing toward *'l thousand," it therefore reads 600. 
Dial h is in the thousands moving toward " 10 
thousand," and therefore reads 7000. Dial a is in 
the ten thousands moving toward " 100 thousand," 
and therefore reads 50,000. Together they amount 
to 57,600, the number obtained by the other method. 
This is the picture of an electric metre : 




10 AMPERES 

lOOOS 100^ 



100 VOLTS 

105. IS 





KILOWATT HOURS 

ONE DIVISION OF |5 DIAL= I K.W. HOUR 



To read the metre : 

Each hand moves in the direction indicated by 
the arrows. 

Read the figure that the hand has actually passed, 
beginning with the dial to the left. 
755 K W.'s 

Subtract last month's reading from this reading 
and the difference will be the amount consumed. 

Viz: 755 

726 

29 K. W.'s. 

The dials here are a simpler arrangement, as they 



240 HOUSEKEEPING 

merely represent the usual numeration — units, 
tens, hundreds, thousands. 

This metre is in an especially instructive con- 
dition, because the 1,000's dial gives no reading. 
The hand has not yet reached 1. 

THE REFRIGERATOR 

A refrigerator serves its purpose better if it is 
placed in a pantry or on an enclosed porch. If it 
must be put in the kitchen, it should have the place 
farthest from the fire. 

The drain pipe of the refrigerator, which carries 
off the water from the melting ice, sometimes empties 
into a pan, sometimes connects with other pipes 
which carry the water out of the house. It should 
never connect with the other drainage of the house, 
nor lead to any well or sewer which receives other 
drainage. No traps or plumbing contrivances are 
perfect enough to protect food which is shut up 
closely with the opening of a pipe connecting even 
remotely with the drainage system. Properly the 
drain pipe of the refrigerator should empty into an 
open basin or sink in the cellar, which in turn drains 
off into the ground. 

The next point of importance after the disposal 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 241 

of its drainage, is to keep the refrigerator clean. 
Guard against spilling things on its shelves, wash the 
ice before it is put in, if it is not clean, and do not 
keep in it things with a strong or penetrating smell — 
An innocent dish of cold-slaw unthinkingly put into 
the refrigerator produces an odour which will startle 
the person who next opens the door. 

A refrigerator needs cleaning once or twice a 
week. It should not be cleaned oftener than is 
necessary because cleaning wastes the cold. For 
this same reason wash it with cold water unless 
something greasy has been spilled in it, and never 
leave the doors open one second longer than is 
necessary. 

Collect beforehand everything required for the 
cleaning, that, when the work is once begun, it may 
be finished quickly. One needs cold water in which 
there is baking soda, borax or boracic acid (2 oz. 
to the qt.), a brush for scrubbing, cloths for wiping, 
something long and slim with which to clean the 
drain pipe and a tray or pan to hold the ice while the 
ice compartment is being cleaned. 

Take the food out of the refrigerator, then the ice. 
Quickly but thoroughly scrub and wipe dry the 
compartment for the ice, not forgetting the drain 
pipe. In many refrigerators the drain pipe can be 



242 HOUSEKEEPING 

removed for cleaning. Replace the ice and shut it 
in. Then scrub and wipe the other compartments 
or shelves, and include the pan and the floor under 
the refrigerator in this cleaning. 

It is hardly necessary to say that rubbish and 
unsightly objects ought not to be tucked away behind 
or under the refrigerator. Its surroundings should 
be as clean and well-aired as possible. 

A refrigerator is at its best when it is full of ice. 
To keep it full is usually found economical as well 
as sanitary. If the ice is gone and it will be some 
hours before a new supply will be brought, keep the 
doors of the refrigerator open until it can be refilled. 
Without ice the refrigerator becomes the very worst 
sort of crowded, unaired food closet. 

If one has difficulty in keeping an old or poor 
refrigerator sweet, one or two pieces of charcoal 
wrapped in gauze and laid in the corners will help. 
They will need renewing frequently. No disin- 
fectant, however odourless and harmless, should be 
put into the refrigerator or into the water with which 
it is washed. Soda, borax or boracic acid answer 
the same purpose and hurt nothing. 

This chapter has concerned itself with what 
might be called the household genii. They have 
always, as old tales will tell you, been powerful and 



THE CELLAR, FIRES, PLUMBING, ETC. 243 

troublesome servants, yet withal valuable and fasci- 
nating. And, nowadays, we have many inventions 
for keeping them in order which would have made 
life easier for old-time sorcerers and magicians who 
sought to govern them by rubbing lamps and saying 
rhymes. 



XI 

MENUS AND MARKETING 
1. MENUS 

HUMAN beings must eat. Under ordinary 
circumstances this is neither a disagree- 
able nor a despicable duty. Just now, 
however, it is a duty which is being made unduly 
conspicuous. Even those of us with good digestions 
and excellent appetites can hardly sit down to a 
meal without taking some thought concerning nutri- 
tive values and the use of beverages, things which 
should not be thought of except by housewives, 
doctors and nurses, whose business they are. People 
watching their own symptoms and doctoring them- 
selves, people constantly observing their own thoughts 
and feelings, and people studying their own diet and 
digestions are all in the same class — they are all 
made ill by too much personal attention. 

Mr. G. K. Chesterton has said a wise word on 
the subject of keeping good health. It is: "The 
one supreme way of making all those processes go 

244 



MENUS AND MARKETING U5 

right, the processes of health and strength and grace 
and beauty, the one and only way of making cer- 
tain of their accuracy, is to think about something 
else." He supports this idea with the command: 
"Take no thought what ye shall eat or what ye shall 
drink." 

The only person in a household who should busy 
herself with matters of diet is the housekeeper. 
The other people ought to be too busy and too 
interested to think of diet and digestion between 
meals, and too courteously occupied in being agree- 
able at table to think of them then. 

Kiiowledge concerning diet and digestion, both 
valuable and useless, can be had without asking. 

The grocer sends you with your purchases a pam- 
phlet on nourishment; a restaurant menu furnishes 
a few thoughts on mastication; warnings against 
coffee drinking glare at you in the street cars; library 
shelves are crowded with books on health, food, 
and so on. When we go out to luncheon or have 
guests to dinner, matters of diet and digestion are 
talked of so freely that we seem to eat with a chart of 
the digestive tract before our mind's eye, and we 
suspiciously watch while innocent food, which unob- 
served might have given vitality and cheer, becomes 
a cause of weariness and depression. 



246 HOUSEKEEPING 

To know enough to feed a family wisely, agree- 
ably and economically without becoming over-care- 
ful, or perhaps a faddist in regard to food is indeed 
very difficult. For one thing, avoid fixed rules 
and arbitrary ideas in catering. Digestions are as 
different as noses and thumb signatures; one can, 
therefore, neither invariably forbid one thing nor 
insist upon another. On the contrary, digestions 
are as alike in general as noses and thumb signatures, 
and it is, therefore, unnecessary and harmful that 
any member of a family should be especially pro- 
vided for and cooked for unless that person is an 
invalid living upon a prescribed diet. 

I believe a simple and successful rule for those 
who have nothing to do with the meals except to eat 
them is: Eat what is set before you and find some- 
thing amusing to say or to think about. It is a 
little difficult at first, both to eat things one does 
not especially care for, and to think up something 
amusing, but it soon becomes a habit. Meals are 
not times for stoking an engine, even with the most 
thoughtfully selected fuel, but times for the renewal 
of life. There is a meditative by-path which leads 
off from this thought concerning the reasons that 
meals are in some cases the most sacred and spiritual 
rites of religion. We must not wander there, how- 



MENUS AND MARKETING 247 

ever, but may note in passing the reason for saying 
Grace at meals which is suggested by this thought. 
A Grace blesses a gift of new life and is a thanks- 
giving for it. 

But that meals shall fulfil their ofiice of renewing 
life and gladness, it is necessary that the woman who 
selects and arranges them shall have some knowledge 
and shall expend some care. It need not be elabor- 
ate knowledge, nor burdensome care, just a usual 
quantity of each. 

It has been discovered that human bodies are 
composed of chemical elements just as are cabbages 
and doctors' prescriptions. Some of the elements 
of which we are composed are oxygen, hydrogen, 
carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, potas- 
sium, calcium, and there are others yet. It 
would seem a simple matter to find out just how 
much of each of these things we contained and 
then to keep up the supply by eating or inhaling 
them in the required quantities, but you can be 
sure there is nothing as dull and matter-of-fact 
as that in this interesting creation. We are not 
doctors' prescriptions, we are even a bit more 
remarkable than cabbages, and it is not just correctly 
measured proportions of oxygen, nitrogen and pot- 
assium that we need, but energy, and heat, and 



248 HOUSEKEEPING 

flesh, and blood. Therefore, it is that when we con- 
sult some wise table of statistics in which the nour- 
ishing value of food is given, we do not find it given 
in terms of oxygen and hydrogen and the rest, 
but in terms which indicate heat, energy and build- 
ing material. 

Tables of the composition of foods are usually 
made in the following terms: Refuse, Water, Pro- 
tein, Fat, Carbohydrates, Ash. Added to these 
there will often be a division headed "Calories." 
The calory nevertheless is not a food substance, 
it is the unit by which energy-giving heat is meas- 
ured. Just as a ribbon is measured in yards and 
molasses in cupfuls, so heat is measured in calories. 

"Refuse" means that part of food which cannot 
be eaten or which could not be used by the body if it 
were eaten, as bones, fibres, seeds, parings, pods 
and shells. 

"Protein" is an inclusive word for the chief sub- 
stances in food which the body can use in rebuild- 
ing itself as use wears it out. 

"Carbohydrates" are the fuel of the body. They 
are converted at once into heat and energy, or if 
there is a surplus they are often stored in the body 
in the form of fat to be used when nourishment is 
less abundant. 



MENUS AND MARKETING 249 

"Fat" is also fuel, a more concentrated form of 
fuel than the carbohydrates. A certain quantity 
is stored in the body as a reserve heat supply. 

The word "Ash" in food tables stands for the 
mineral matters which are used in our bodies for 
building bones and teeth, and for a few other pur- 
poses; these minerals are for the most part building 
materials, but are not so important as protein and 
are needed in smaller quantities. 

Human bodies are constituted to withstand adver- 
sities and to bear the experiments and mistakes 
which we make; therefore it is that though these food 
substances usually serve the purposes attributed to 
them above, yet when need arises the body is able, 
for a time at least, to use one for the other. This 
is a provision, however, for special and adverse 
occasions. Ordinarily food should be supplied in 
the variety and proportion which will enable the 
body to use each class of nourishment for its own 
purpose. 

Roughly estimated, an average person's diet should 
be about one-fifth protein, one-fifth fat and three- 
fifths carbohydrates. That the carbohydrates exceed 
the others in quantity is easily accounted for. They 
are not such concentrated fuel as fat, therefore a 
greater quantity is needed ; they are consumed to make 



250 HOUSEKEEPING 

heat instead of being built into the body as protein 
is; therefore, we need more carbohydrates, just as 
we need to renew the coal supply in a house more 
frequently than to renew the carpets. 

The foods from which we derive protein are 
chiefly meat, fish, milk, beans, peas, bread and other 
articles made of wheat, corn, oats, and like grains. 

Vegetables, with the exception of beans and peas, 
furnish chiefly carbohydrates. 

Fats are derived for the most part from the animal 
food which we eat. Butter, for instance, is chiefly fat, 
and the proportion of fat in bacon is more than half. 

But because nearly every kind of food contains 
other constituents besides the one which is chief, 
the housekeeper who wishes to make wise menus 
will need more and more detailed statements of 
food values as she is able to get and understand them. 
If she has hitherto thought little about such matters, 
she will probably not know that the United States 
Government has very kindly employed people to 
make years of experiments and to write books and 
pamphlets for her help, nor will she know that she 
may have these last merely by asking the Department 
of Agriculture for them. They are not made into 
attractive booklets, but they are by no means dull 
reading. Farmers' Bulletin No. 142, for instance. 



MENUS AND MARKETING 251 

called "Principles of Nutrition and Nutritive Value 
of Food," and written by Dr. W. O. Atwater, is 
brief, helpful and most interesting. The figures 
in the table given below were taken from this Bulle- 
tin. But there are things which may be derived 
from this and the many other food pamphlets issued 
by the Government which are quite as important as 
definite statistics. They are things which give the 
housewife a feeling of comradeship with many people 
who are working earnestly with and for her; things 
which increase her interest in her own small part 
of the work and which give her a helpful sense of its 
dignity. 

For many reasons it is impossible for a house- 
wife to make an exact calculation of the amount of 
nourishment which she gives her family. The 
figures in even the most carefully made tables are, 
of necessity, averages or approximates, for food 
varies in quality in different localities and at different 
seasons. Moreover, the figures in the various gov- 
ernment reports upon food values and in books giv- 
ing such statistics differ somewhat, nevertheless, 
there is sufficient general agreement upon which to 
base an intelligent effort to make wise as well as 
agreeable menus. 

On this account, a housewife who is neither very 



252 HOUSEKEEPING 

learned nor very experienced can yet wisely regulate 
her menus by keeping in mind the general char- 
acter of a day's nourishment and helping out her 
lack of chemical knowledge with a table of food 
values such as the one below. The general aim 
in providing food, as has already been said, is to 
furnish all the varieties of nourishment which the 
body requires and the chief ones in about the pro- 
portion of a fifth protein to a fifth fat to three-fifths 
carbohydrates. That is, either the per cent, of 
protein or the per cent, of fat multiplied by three 
should about equal the carbohydrates. This is, 
of course, a very rough and general way of estima- 
ting, but I believe it to be a practical way to begin 
the study and application of a branch of difficult 
and as yet slightly established knowledge. 



Food Materials. 


Ref. 
use. 


Water. 


Fro- 
tein. 


Fat. 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates. 


Ash. 


Beef: 

Chuck ribs 

Ribs 

Rib rolls 


Per cent. 

16.3 
20.8 

'7.'2 
20.7 
36.9 
12.7 
12.8 

8.4 

4.7 


Per cent. 

52.6 
43.8 
63.9 
60.7 
45.0 
42.9 
52.4 
54.0 

49.2 
51.8 
53.7 


Per cent. 

15.5 
13.9 
19.3 
19.0 
13.8 
12.8 
19.1 
16.5 

14.3 
26.3 
26.4 


Per cent. 

15.0 

21.2 
16.7 
12.8 
20.2 
7.3 
17.9 
16.1 

23.8 

18.7 

6.9 


Per 


cent. 


Per cent. 

0.8 
.7 
.9 


Round 

Rump 

Shank, fore 


1.0 
.7 
.6 




.8 


Sirioin steak 


.9 


Corned beef 




4.6 


Canned corned beef 

Dried and smoked beef 






4.0 
8 9 



MENUS AND MARKETING 



253 



Food Materials. 


Ref- 
use. 


Water. 


Pro- 
tein. 


Fat. 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates. 


Ash. 


Veal: 

Breast 


Per cent. 

21.3 

14.2 

3.4 

9.9 
18.4 
16.0 

19.1 
17.4 

10.7 
13.6 
12.4 
18.2 
19.7 
7.7 


Per cent. 

52.0 
60.1 
68.3 

39.0 
51.2 
42.0 

45.5 
52.9 

48.0 
34.8 
44.9 
36.8 
41.8 
17.4 
7.9 

55.2 
39.8 

57.2 

43.7 
47.1 
38.5 

,42.4 

58.5 
40.2 
61.9 
40.4 
35.2 
19.2 
63.5 
53.6 

88.3 


Per cent. 

15.4 
15.5 
20.1 

13.8 
15.1 
13.5 

15.4 
15.9 

13.5 
14.2 
12.0 
13.0 
13.4 
9.1 
1.9 

18.2 
13.0 
19.6 

12.8 
13.7 
13.4 
16.1 

11.1 
16.0 
15.3 
10.2 
9.4 
20.5 
21.8 
23.7 

6.0 


Per cent. 

11.0 
7.9 
7.5 

36.9 
14.7 

28.3 

19.1 
13.6 

25.9 
33.4 
29.8 
26.6 

24.2 
62.2 
86.2 

19.7 

44.2 
18.6 

1.4 
12.3 

29.8 
18.4 

.2 

.4 

4.4 

4.2 

4.8 

8.8 

12.1 

12.1 

1.3 


Per cent. 


Per cent. 
.8 


Leg 


.9 


Leg cutlets 


1.0 


Mutton: 
Flank 


.6 


Leg, hind 


.8 


Loin chops 


.7 


Lamb: 

Breast 


.8 


Leg, hind 


.9 


Pork: 


.8 


Ham, smoked 






4.2 




.7 


Shoulder, smoked 


5.5 


L^jin chops 


8 


Bacon, smoked 


4.1 


Salt pork 


3.9 


Satjsage: 

Bologna 


3.3 


i.i 
1.1 


3.8 


Pork 


2.2 


Frankfort 




3.4 


Poultry: 

Chicken, broilers 


41.6 
25.9 
17.6 

22.7 

29.9 
24.9 
17.7 

44.7 
50.1 
44.4 


.7 


Fowls 


.7 


Goose 


.7 


Turkey 


.8 


Fish- 


.8 


Cod, salt 






18.5 




.9 


Mackerel, whole 


.7 


Shad, whole 

Herring, smoked 


.7 
7.4 


Salmon, canned 


2.6 


Sardines 


5.0 


5.3 


Shell fish: 

Oysters 


3.3 


1.1 















254 



HOUSEKEEPING 



Food Materials. 


Ref. 
use. 


Water. 


Pro- 
tein. 


Fat. 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates. 


Ash. 


Shedl fish: — Continued. 

Clams 

Crabs 

Lobsters 

Eggs: 

Daikt Products: 

Butter 

Whole milk 


Per tent. 

52.4 
61.7 

11.2 


Per cent. 

80.8 
36.7 
30.7 

65.5 

11.0 
87.0 
90.5 
91.0 
26.9 
74.0 
34.2 

11.4 
11.3 

12.0 
12.0 
10.3 

9.6 
13.6 
12.9 
12.5 

7.7 
12.3 
11.4 

35.3 
43.6 
35.7 
38.4 
35.7 

12.6 


Per cent. 

10.6 
7.9 
5.9 

13.1 

1.0 
3.3 
3.4 
3.0 
8.8 
2.5 
25.9 

13.8 
13.3 

11.4 

14.0 

13.4 

12.1 

6.4 

6.8 

9.2 

16.7 

8.0 

.4 

9.2 
5.4 
8.9 
9.7 
9.0 

22.5 


Per cent. 

1.1 

.9 

.7 

9.3 

85.0 

4.0 

.3 

.5 

8.3 

18.5 

33.7 

1.9 

2.2 

1.0 
1.9 

.9 
1.8 
1.2 

.9 
1.9 
7.3 

.3 

.1 

1.3 

1.8 

1.8 

.9 

.6 

1.8 


Per cent. 

5.2 
.6 

.2 

5.0 
5.1 
4.8 
54.1 
4.5 
2.4 

71.9 
71.4 

75.1 

71.2 
74.1 
75.2 
77.9 
78.7 
75.4 
66.2 
79.0 
88.0 

53.1 
47.1 
52.1 
49.7 
53.2 

70.0 

81.0 

100.0 

71.4 

59.6 


Per cent. 

2.3 
1.5 

.8 

.9 

3.0 

.7 


Skim milk 


.7 


Buttermilk 

Condensed milk 


.7 
1.9 


Cream 

Cheese, full cream 

Flour, Meal, etc.: 


.5 
3.8 

1.0 


Graham flour 


1.8 


Wheat flour, roller process, 
high and medium grades. . . 
Low grade 

Macaroni, vermicelli, etc 

Buckwheat flour 


.5 

.9 

1.3 

1.3 

.9 


Rye flour .... 

Corn meal 


.7 
1.0 


Oat breakfast food 


2.1 


Rice 

Bread: 

White 

Brown 

Graham 

Whole wheat 


.4 
.1 

1.1 
2.1 
1.5 
1.3 


Rye 

Sugars, etc. • 


1.5 


Honey 

Sugar, granulated 

Maple syrup 

Vegetables: 

Beans, dried 




3.5 



MENUS AND MARKETING 



255 



Food Materials. 


Ref- 
use. 


Water. 


Pro- 
tein. 


Fat. 


Carbo- 
hy- 
drates. 


Ash. 






Per cent. 


Per cent. 








Vegetables: — Continued. 














Beans, lima, shelled 




68.5 


7.1 


.7 


22.0 


1.7 


Beans, string 


7.6 


83.0 


2.1 


.3 


6.9 


.7 


Baked beans, canned 




68.9 


6.9 


2.5 


19.6 


2.1 


Beets 


20.0 


70.0 


1.3 


.1 


7.7 


.9 


Cabbage 


15.0 


77.7 


1.4 


.2 


4.8 


.9 


Celery 


20.0 


75.6 


.9 


.1 


2.6 


.8 


Corn, green, edible portion. . . 




75.4 


3.1 


1.1 


19.7 


.7 


Cucumbers 


15.6 


81.1 


.7 


.2 


2.6 


.4 


Lettuce 


15.0 


80.5 


1.0 


.2 


2.5 


.8 


Mushrooms 




88.1 


3.5 


.4 


6.8 


1.2 


Onions 


l6.0 


78.9 


1.4 


.3 


8.9 


.5 


Parsnips 


20.0 


66.4 


1.3 


.4 


10.8 


1.1 


Peas, shelled 




74.6 


7.0 


.5 


16.9 


1.0 


Peas, canned 




85.3 
62.6 


3.6 
1.8 


.2 
.1 


9.8 
14.7 


1.1 


Potatoes 


20.0 


.8 


Rhubarb 


40.0 


56.6 


.4 


.4 


2.2 


.4 


Sweet potatoes 

Spinach ... . ■. 


20.0 


55.2 


1.4 


.6 


21.9 


.9 




92.3 
44.2 


2.1 

.7 


.3 
.2 


3.2 
4.5 


2.1 


Squash 


50.0 


.4 


Tomatoes 




94.3 


.9 


.4 


3.9 


.5 


Tomatoes, canned 




94.0 


1.2 


.2 


4.0 


.6 


Turnips 


30.0 


62.7 


.9 


.1 


5.7 


.6 


Fruits, Berries, etc.: 
















25.0 


63.3 


.3 


.3 


10.8 


.3 


Apples, dried 




28.1 


1.6 


2.2 


66.1 


2.0 


Bananas 


35.6 


48.9 


.8 


.4 


14.3 


.6 


Grapes 


25.0 


58.0 


1.0 


1.2 


14.4 


.4 


liCmons 


30.0 
50.0 
27.0 


62.5 
44.8 
63.4 


.7 
.3 
.6 


.5 

-i 


5.9 
4.6 
8.5 


.4 


Muskmelons 


.3 




.4 


Pears 


10.0 


76.0 


.5 


.4 


12.7 


.4 


Raspberries 




85.8 


1.0 




12.6 


.6 


Strawberries 


5.0 
59.4 


85.9 
37.5 
29.4 


.9 

.2 
4.7 


.6 

.1 

1.0 


7.0 

2.7 
62.5 


.6 




.1 


Apricots, dried 


2.4 




l6.6 


13.8 
18.8 


1.9 
4.3 


2.5 
.3 


70.6 

74.2 


1.2 


Figs 


2.4 




10.0 


13.1 


2.3 


3.0 


68.5 


3.1 


Nuts: 




Almonds 


45.0 
16.0 
48.8 


2.7 

37.8 

7.2 

3.5 


11.5 

5.2 
2.9 
6.3 


30.2 

4.5 

25.9 

57.4 


9.5 
35.4 
14.3 
31.5 


1.1 




1.1 




.9 




1.3 







256 



HOUSEKEEPING 



Food Materials. 



Ref. 



Water. 



Pro- 
tein. 



Fat. 



Carbo- 
hy- 
drates 



Ash. 



Nuts : — Continued. 
Hickory nuts. . . . 

Peanuts 

Walnuts, black. . . 
Walnuts, English 

Chocolate 

Cocoa, powdered . 



Ptr cent. 

62.2 
24.5 
74.1 
58.1 



1.4 

6.9 

.6 

1.0 



5.8 

19.5 

7.2 

6.9 



5.9 12.9 
4.6 21.6 



25.5 
29.1 
14.6 
26.6 

48.7 
28.9 



4.3 

18.5 

3.0 

6.8 

30.3 
37.7 



.8 

1.5 

.5 

.6 

2.2 
7.2 



A table given as this one, in percentages instead 
of quantities, may seem at first sight too indefinite 
to be of much service to a housekeeper who natur- 
ally wishes to know the quantity of food to give 
her household as well as the proportions of its com- 
position. I have purposely avoided giving a food 
table which deals with quantities because I believe 
this one to be more useful to a beginner. One's 
first calculations in food values can hardly be other 
than approximate and inexact. Not many girls, 
when they begin their housekeeping, have either 
the time or the ability to make the calculations 
which even the simplest schemes for computing a 
dietary require. Besides, an effort to provide scien- 
tifically correct meals on the part of a housewife to 
whom the effort is unfamiliar and difficult is apt 
to produce monotony in the meals, worry in her, 
and disregard and forgetfulness of the family's par- 
ticular tastes. 



MENUS AND MARKETING 257 

A first and simple step for her to take is to make 
herself familiar with the chief value of different 
articles of food and of the more usual combinations. 
When she takes this last matter into consideration 
she will find that many combinations which are 
traditional, which were probably made merely by 
instinct, are, when tested, palatable wisdom. For 
instance, bread is a very complete food in itself 
except that it is a little lacking in fat, but people have 
been spreading butter on it for centuries, and thereby 
completing it. 

Consider the traditional combination of baked 
beans and brown bread. Referring to the table 
we find beans a fairly well-balanced food, but 
a little lacking in fat. In brown bread neither 
the protein nor the fat come anywhere near 
being a third of the carbohydrates. Therefore, 
when we combine these two articles we shall 
be a little lacking in protein and a good deal 
lacking in fat. Butter on the bread will help 
this last difficulty and the wisdom of our 
ancestors will help out the rest. What did they 
combine with these two ? Codfish cakes, to be 
sure. And in these there is codfish which has a 
good deal of protein in it; egg which has protein 
and fat; butter which is chiefly fat and potato which 



258 HOUSEKEEPING 

is chiefly carbohydrates. We might make a dia- 
grami of it, like this : 

Cod fish .... Protein 

Egg Protein Fat 

Butter . Fat 

Potato Carbohydrates 

As a dish to combine with two articles somewhat 
lacking in protein and fat, we may feel ourselves 
content with this. 

In many people's minds the word "sausage" is 
just naturally followed by the words "buckwheat 
cakes." Is there sanction for this ? From the food 
table we learn that sausage has a fair percentage of 
protein, almost no carbohydrates, and is almost 
half fat. Buckwheat cakes have in them, beside 
buckwheat flour, a little milk and often some wheat 
flour or corn meal. This table will, perhaps, repre- 
sent the matter better than an explanation. 

Protein. Fat. Carbohydrates. 

Sausage 13.0 44.2 1.1 

Buckwheat flour .... 6.4 1.2 77.9 

Milk 3.3 4.0 5.0 

The table says to the eye, too much fat. One 
cannot remedy the defect by increasing the pro- 
tein and carbohydrates to match the fat, for we 
should then have as much food at one meal as we 
should need for three. The real remedy is to bal- 



MENUS AND MARKETING 259 

ance this meal with others during the day in which 
the percentage of fat is very low. Another remedy 
is to serve meals with a large percentage of fat on 
very cold days; in that case the weather will help 
to balance the excess of heat production. 

Pursuing this matter of tradition, why are peas 
served with lamb, and why is pork so often accom- 
panied with "greens" of some sort.? The percen- 
tage of protein in lamb is low enough to allow, 
perhaps require, some supplement from the vege- 
tables. The excess of fat in pork is offset by the 
excess of water in greens, and also by certain medi- 
cinal qualities they possess which are represented 
in the percentage of "Ash." One might almost 
say that the combination known as "hog's jowl and 
turnip greens" is providential. I am sure it has 
saved bodily suffering and even lives in certain 
pig-raising localities. 

One can see from looking thoughtfully at this food 
table that the dinner at which we have lamb, veal, 
poultry, or fish is the occasion upon which to have 
a substantial vegetable, such as macaroni, lima 
beans, parsnips or sweet potatoes, or an especially 
substantial dessert such as a boiled pudding or a 
pie. It is also evident that when we have beef, 
mutton or pork it is healthful to combine them with 



260 HOUSEKEEPING 

vegetables like spinach, cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes 
and turnips, which contain a large percentage of 
water. The dessert for such occasions may well 
be a jelly or fruit in some form — something light 
and cool. 

The day on which we have roast pork is not the 
occasion to have apple dumpling or any dessert 
with a percentage of fat; the meal at which we serve 
beef steak and mushrooms is not the one to com- 
plete with mince pie, for we should then have more 
protein than we should know what to do with. On 
the contrary, the day on which the main dish at din- 
ner is made from yesterday's meat, or is fish, is not 
the time for a watery or a fluffy dessert, unless 
we are purposely planning a day of abstinence. If 
it happens that the family diet includes little meat, 
care must be taken that protein is supplied from 
other sources, otherwise we shall be running an 
engine at full speed in a building which is never 
decently repaired and which will one day fall round 
our ears. 

There are several questions which frequently arise 
in the mind of a person who begins to study food 
values. One is, why are articles included in the 
menu of almost every meal which have almost no 
value as nourishment .? In many cases such articles 



MENUS AND MARKETING 26i 

are appetizing and refreshing; such are lettuce, 
celery, muskmelons, cucumbers and many soups 
and desserts. They also contain much water, of 
which the body has great and constant need. They 
also give bulk to our food, which is a necessity 
because some of the processes of digestion do not 
begin until the organs to which they belong are 
expanded. 

A housewife who is bewildered or disheartened 
will sometimes ask why we cannot take our food 
in capsules, or why an ideal dietary cannot be made 
and used over and over again. She will not be the 
first person who has thought of these expedients, 
but it has been fairly well proved that highly con- 
densed food, as also " predigested " foods, not only 
lack this element of bulk of which we have been 
speaking, but have an even worse defect. They 
give us something for nothing, which is always bad 
for us. That is, they furnish us with nourishment 
without requiring any effort to speak of from the 
digestive organs. As a result the digestive organs 
grow flabby and useless from having nothing to do. 
A child in school who is never given anything diffi- 
cult to do grows flabby in mind and character and soon 
can't do anything difficult; so it is with a digestion. 

The objection to the use of an ideal dietary is, in 



262 HOUSEKEEPING 

the first place, that such a dietary has not been dis- 
covered. People claim to have discovered it, but 
that is different from really doing so. But the chief 
objection to the use of such a thing is that the body 
requires a variety of food, that a variety of food has 
been provided for it on the earth and that the part 
of us which is not body will not stand eating the 
same thing every day or even every week. Have 
you ever lived in a boarding house or in an institu- 
tion where there was an invariable week's menu. It 
is a mechanical contrivance which soon stirs up rebel- 
lion, and rightly. 

Probably a word more needs to be said on this 
subject of variety, for it is a saving grace in menu 
making. If one can give one's household real variety 
of food, not merely that which is made by different 
methods of serving and cooking, but that which 
is actually a difference in constituents, mistakes 
in selection will then never get very long or thor- 
oughly established. If one cannot be right all the 
time, by means of variety one can be fairly sure of 
being right some of the time. Variety is also made 
necessary by changes in season, in occupation, in 
state of health, and I think I may add without mak- 
ing a loop-hole for pampering people unduly, that 
it is made necessary at times by change of mood. 



MENUS AND MARKETING 263 

A trivial thing comes to my mind which none the 
less illustrates what I am trying to say about variety. 
So often I have seen a woman, whom I like to be with, 
a woman who has many, many things to do, take 
a few moments to make the last bit of her cookie- 
dough into an elephant or a rabbit of extraordi- 
nary figure. The cheering effect of this animal upon 
the boy who comes in from school very tired and 
perhaps cross or discouraged, is delightful to see. 
I repent that I called it a trivial thing, for this puffy, 
blunt-legged animal is to the child pleasant food, 
an amusing sight and the assurance that some one has 
thought gladly of him during the long school hours. 

Variety in menus gives to the grown-up mind the 
same pleasurable feelings which the cookie ele- 
phant gives to the mind of the child, with this prac- 
tical addition, that such feelings of pleasure also 
quicken the appetite and the energy and digestive 
powers of the body, thus enabling it to profit more 
by the nourishment varied foods convey. 

MARKETING 

Making a wise menu does not by any means pro- 
duce a meal. It is a first step in the process, the 
next is to buy the food which is required by the 
menu. 



264 HOUSEKEEPING 

Many women like to shop, and even more like to 
have it thought that they know how to shop. For 
some unknown reason shopping for food does not 
usually excite the same interest nor is it so coveted 
an accomplishment. I wonder if it seems less inter- 
esting because the things shopped for are not "to 
keep." If this is the reason, one has but to remind 
oneself that they are "to keep," only they must 
first be transmuted into the flesh and bones, work 
and laughter of the family. 

A large city market is a "sight" in the same sense 
that a museum or an aquarium or a menagerie is. 
It is also to some extent a "sight" in the way that 
an art gallery is. I would like to give as a reward 
to good housekeepers a visit to the market in 
Venice. It is spread in heaps and piles of colour 
on gray stones, and shaded with gay awnings. 
Women wearing fringed shawls and high heels 
and high combs go to it in gondolas, and the 
market- stuffs are brought to it in boats which 
glide up to the steps through thousand-coloured 
ripples. 

Often, however, marketing is done in ugly little 
shops instead of in one big market. But though 
small shops are not so spectacular, they are often 
easier to market in, and the customer usually receives 



MENUS AND MARKETING 265 

an amount of personal attention which is useful if 
one has many things to learn. 

One of the best reasons for going to a market 
or to provision shops every day or two is that there 
is so much to be learned there. An incidental reason 
is that going to market takes the housewife out of 
doors more often than she might otherwise go. 
Another reason for going is that it helps in making 
varied menus; one sees things which would never 
have been thought of at home. The housewife who 
goes to market can also take advantage of special 
prices. 

Wise marketing, like wise shopping, requires of 
us two moral qualities, judgment and self-restraint. 
One must ask oneself and answer wisely and 
truly : 

Is this what I want ? 

Is its price reasonable for me to pay ? 

Is it good of its kind ? 

Is it in good condition .^ 

Is it a suitable size or quantity ? 

If any of it is left to-day will it fit into my plans 
for to-morrow.^ 

Is this what I want.? That is, is it what I have 
reasonably planned to get or just something which 
momentarily appeals to me. On the other hand, 



266 HOUSEKEEPING 

is it perhaps better for my purpose than the thing I 
had planned to have ? 

*' Reasonable," used in regard to a price, has 
two interpretations, and the housewife is concerned 
with both. She must consider whether the price of 
an article is "within her means" as people say, that 
is, whether she can buy this thing which she wants 
without sacrificing something equally or more impor- 
tant. She must also consider whether the price is 
a reasonable value for the nourishment and enjoy- 
ment which it represents and not a fictitious 
price caused by unseasonableness or an unusual 
demand. 

Is it good of its kind ? And is it in good condition ? 
Are questions which may well be considered together. 
We can only learn to answer them by experiment 
and experience. Especially is this true in regard 
to meat. One cannot easily recognize the different 
pieces from another person's description, and it is 
often difficult to do so from pictures. Even the 
names of the pieces differ considerably in different 
localities, and a knowledge of the quality of meat is 
impossible to obtain except from actual experience. 
The best and easiest way to learn about meat is from 
a good butcher. Three or four minutes of his time 
appropriated by you every time that you go to his 



MENUS AND MARKETING 267 

shop will make you into a skilful marketer. Do 
not hesitate to ask him questions nor be afraid of 
betraying your ignorance. For whether you know 
much or little, it is well to put a good deal of respon- 
sibility upon him in selecting meat, then if it is not 
satisfactory he can fairly be taken to task, but if you 
do the choosing without his help, a mistake is your 
own fault. 

If the housewife is not sure of the names given 
to pieces of meat in the locality in which she is mar- 
keting, or not very sure of such names anyv/here, 
she may easily explain her wishes by designating 
what she means to do with a piece of meat, as, *'a 
piece of veal for roasting," "about a pound and a 
half of lamb for stewing," "a piece of beef for soup," 
and the like phrases. 

Her receipt book will probably give her pictures 
and the names of pieces of meat, or she may again 
apply to her paternal government for Farmers' 
Bulletin No. 34 : " Meats: Composition and Cooking," 
in which she will find placid animals divided into 
numbered sections, and considerable explanation 
of ways in which these sections may be used. 

Because the names of pieces of meat and the 
methods of cutting them vary considerably, I shall 
give but a brief and general table here. This dia- 



268 



HOUSEKEEPING 



gram of a side of beef will give some idea of the posi- 
tion of the several pieces. 




1. Hind Shank 

2. Lower Round 

3. Round 

4. Aitch Bone 

5. Rump 

6. Loin 

7. Flank 

8. Navel 

9. Plate 

10. Ribs 

11. Brisket 

12. Cross Ribs 

13. Chuck 

14. Neck 

15. Shoulder 

16. Fore Shank 



Beef. — The neck, shin or shank and navel are 
usually used for soup stock. 

A variety of pieces known by a variety of names, 
such as cross ribs, plate or Rattel rand, brisket, 
shoulder, rump, thick flank, aitch bone and the 
butt or vein, are used for boiling, braising, stewing, 
corned beef, pot roasts and spiced beef. 

The upper round, occasionally called the buttock, 
is used for round steaks. 

The lower round is good for beef -tea, hamburg- 
steak, meat pies and any purpose for w^hich good 
chopped beef is needed. 

The chuck ribs are those nearest the neck; they 



MENUS AND MARKETING 269 

are frequently used for stews, chuck steaks and 
ragout. Sometimes the ribs are removed and the 
meat rolled and tied; this makes a tender and well- 
flavoured roast. 

The prime ribs, of which some people say there 
are five and others six, are used for prime roasts. 
They are divided into first, second and third cuts; 
the last is considered least desirable. 

From the part of the animal known as the loin are 
cut porterhouse, sirloin and short steaks ; from this part 
also comes the tenderloin, sometimes called the fillet. 

The parts of the loin and the prime ribs are the 
most expensive and are considered the most desirable 
parts of the animal. The housekeeper whose purse 
will not permit her to buy them may comfort her- 
self, though, with the fact that they contain no 
more nourishment than some less popular pieces. 

Other meats are divided into somewhat fewer 
cuts than beef. The more general divisions are 
given below. 

Veal. — The loin is used for roasts and chops. 

The fillet for roasts and cutlets. 

The better parts of the neck and the breast are 
Used for roasting and chops. 

The less desirable parts for pies, pot roasts and 
stews. 



270 HOUSEKEEPING 

The shank, which in veal is known as a "knuckle," 
is used for soup and broths. 

Mutton or lamb. — The leg is used for roasting or 
boiling. 

The shoulder for baking and roasting. 

The loin for chops and roasts. 

The ribs, which are often called the "rack," are 
used chiefly for chops. 

The breast may be roasted, baked or stewed. 

Pork. — Hams and shoulders, the back and front 
legs of the animal, are eaten either smoked or fresh. 

The loin, ribs and sparerib are used for roasts, 
chops, stews and baked dishes. 

Pieces used for salt pork and bacon are cut from 
the almost clear fat of the back and sides. 

Almost all parts of the pig are used for food, but 
as they are usually known by names which indicate 
what they are, they give the housewife little trouble 
in remembering them. 

The use of your eye, sometimes of your hand, 
is required in judging the condition of the food you 
are buying. 

Meat which is without fat is probably tough. 
Fat of beef should be pale yellow and dry, the lean, 
bright red and firm. Mutton, veal and pork should 
have pure white fat, the lean of mutton should be 



MENUS AND MARKETING 271 

bright red, of veal, pink, of pork, a somewhat more 
delicate pink. 

Chickens should have soft, moist, yellow feet, 
smooth, thick legs, and tender skin. The end of 
the breastbone should be pliable. Plump, very 
bright yellow chickens are fat and are better for 
stews or pot-pie than for roasting. 

Turkeys should have smooth, black legs and 
white, plump breasts. If the flesh of their legs 
is purplish they are probably old. 

Geese and ducks should have soft feet, hard 
breasts and pinkish beaks. 

Fish in good condition have bright eyes and 
scales, stiff fins and flesh so hard and firm 
that it will not retain the mark if pressed with a 
finger. 

It is not a difiicult matter to tell whether fruit 
and vegetables are fresh and good. When such 
things are wilted, withered, bruised or lacking in 
firmness, they are not good for food unless they 
are merely wilted as lettuce and asparagus some- 
times are on a hot day, or when they have been 
carried through the sun. 

I know of no way of judging butter except by 
tasting it. There is little also by which to judge 
eggs; their shells should not be shiny or very smooth 



272 HOUSEKEEPING 

and they should feel both light and heavy — if you 
can tell what I mean by that. 

The last two questions on the marketing list are 
also usually considered together. Both are really 
questions concerning quantity. 

Food so often comes in quantities too large for 
one meal that it is usually better to make menus 
for two days at one time and then revise the sec- 
ond day's menu when the second day comes. 

Under these questions of quantity comes a class 
of articles a little different from those which we 
have just been mentioning: articles like sugar, 
flour, salt, coffee, tea and the like, which are bought 
in bulk. In what quantity it is wise to buy such 
things depends upon the size of the household, the 
place where these articles may be kept, the distance 
from the place where the supply can be renewed, the 
income of the family and whether the housewife or 
a reliable servant dispenses them for use. I think 
it is pretty generally admitted that households 
which are living on small means do better to buy 
food supplies in small quantities. The advantages 
of doing this are, that if the conrimodity is injured 
in any way, the loss is small; that no large outlay 
of money is required at any one time; that the small- 
ness of the quantity possessed is a continual guard 



MENUS AND MARKETING 273 

against its lavish use. These advantages usually 
amply offset the fact that it is a little cheaper and 
a little more comfortable to buy in large quantities. 

Because it is easier, housewives sometimes fall 
into the way of dealing at just one or two shops. 
This is a good thing to do usually, a poor one to do 
invariably. To go occasionally to other shops 
gives one the chance to find better things and pleas- 
anter conditions; it also makes your regular shop- 
keeper more anxious to please if he knows you go 
elsewhere when you are not pleased. An advantage 
in cities of going here and there, is that one can often 
take advantage of a difference in prices in different 
localities. This must be done, of course, with judg- 
ment; otherwise one makes oneself a fit subject for 
one of those jokes about women who save two cents 
on a head of lettuce and spend ten in carfare going 
to get it. 

Women who take the same sort of trouble about 
marketing as they do about buying their clothes 
usually succeed well with it. It is really not a diffi- 
cult form of shopping and interest in it grows as one 
learns. 



XII 

COOKING 

OUR Brother the Sun gets up every morning 
to cook, cooks all day, and seems to enjoy 
cooking. The cooking processes which we 
engage in are many of them imitations of his. When 
we use water and heat to soften and break up starch 
cells, it is only a copy of the process by which the 
sun makes the dry starch laid up in a seed in the 
damp earth into food for the first little leaves of a 
plant. Long before we ever thought of cooking, 
the sun was changing starch into sugar by heating 
apples and pears and peaches through and through 
every day. One might even venture to say that he 
had warmed milk for all the mammal babies ever 
since the first one was born. Every once in a while, 
people appear who try to persuade us to "go back 
to nature" and eat our food uncooked, not realizing 
that they are asking us, not to go back to nature, 
but to our own first ignorance of what nature is 
doing. 

The dictionary says that "to cook" is "to prepare 

274 




Cooking 



Photograph by Helen W. Cooke 



COOKING 275 

food by subjecting it to heat"; a brief and simple 
definition including some thousands of processes 
ranging from the universal cooking done by the 
sun to that performed by an accomplished French 
chef. 

The object of cooking is to make food more diges- 
tible and more attractive. For changes occur in 
food when it is subjected to heat which make it 
more easily used by the body and which make it 
more agreeable in flavour — more "appetizing." 
An incidental but important benefit from cooking 
is that great heat kills the animal organisms which 
food sometimes contains. 

1. THE PROCESSES 

The most usual processes of cooking are broiling, 
boiling, stewing, braising, frying, roasting and bak- 
ing. 

Broiling. — Food is broiled by being held close to 
a fire of glowing red coals. The utensil needed for 
doing this is a wire broiler, which should be greased 
before the meat is laid in it, preferably with a bit of 
fat from the meat. In broiling, the chief object 
is to keep the juices of the meat from running out. 
For this reason the meat is laid close over the red 



276 HOUSEKEEPING 

coals for about ten seconds, then turned with the 
other side to the coals that both may be seared 
almost at once. Afterward it is turned frequently 
to prevent burning. Broiled meat is not seasoned 
until it is done because salt draws out its juices. 
Care is also taken not to cut or pierce the meat while 
it is cooking. 

Steaks and chops are almost always broiled; 
fish, chicken and oysters are frequently cooked in 
this way. 

Broiling may be done in a frying pan heated 
intensely hot, and greased as the wires of the broiler 
were with a bit of fat from the meat — a tiny bit. 
The meat is laid in the pan, first on one side for a 
few seconds, then on the other. It is turned, as when 
broiling over the coals, often enough to keep it from 
burning. 

Articles of food which are thin need a hotter fire, 
or to be laid nearer the fire than thicker ones. This 
assures that the time required to brown the outside 
will be too brief to dry the article through and 
through. 

A thick piece of meat will not cook through to 
the middle for some time and should therefore be 
exposed to a slower fire that the outside may not be 
hard before the inside is cooked. These principles 



COOKING 277 

apply also to the roasting and baking of thick and 
thin articles of food. 

Boiling. — As only liquids can boil, we mean 
when we say we boil potatoes, that we cook them in 
boiling water. When water is heated, tiny bubbles 
of steam rise in it, which at first break before they 
reach the surface; this is "simmering." As the heat 
increases, the bubbles rise more quickly and higher, 
and break at the surface; this is boiling. Water 
boils at 212° F., and, though its motion may be 
increased by heat to a "gallop," it gets no hotter, 
for the steam escapes when the little bubbles burst. 
Liquids which have a greater density than water, 
such as salt water, syrup, grease and oil, do not boil 
until they have reached a higher temperature than 
212°. Milk boils at a lower temperature than water. 
The reason it "boils over" so easily is that what one 
might call the texture of the milk bubbles which 
enclose the steam is less delicate than that of the 
water bubbles, therefore instead of breaking when 
they come to the surface, they pile up one upon 
another. 

Boiling water hardens and toughens some of the 
protein substances in food, but softens and makes 
digestible most of the substances included under 
the head of carbohydrates. 



278 HOUSEKEEPING 

Cold water softens and dissolves into itself some 
of the protein substances, and also soaks out the 
nourishing qualities of carbohydrates. 

These facts are extremely useful in deciding upon 
the best method of boiling food. For instance, if 
we have a piece of meat or fish which we wish to boil 
and serve whole, it should be put into water which 
is already boiling ; this hardens the outside sufficiently 
to keep the juices inside. This hardening is accom- 
plished in about eight or ten minutes; at the end of 
that time, the temperature of the water should be 
allowed to fall a little below the boiling point that the 
inside of the article may be cooked without being 
hardened. Water into which fish is put should be 
just boiling, not rapidly boiling, as the motion some- 
times breaks the fish into pieces. 

If we wish to make soup, broth, or beef-tea, we cut 
meat into small pieces and put it into cold water, 
which is then gradually brought to a high tempera- 
ture. The cold water dissolves the substances of 
the meat, which it has a better opportunity of doing 
from many small pieces than from one large one, 
and gradually becomes highly and agreeably 
flavoured. Meanwhile, the meat becomes more and 
more tasteless and colourless and is, at last, fit 
only to be thrown away. 



COOKING 279 

Salt is put into the water in which meat is boiled. 
In cold water it helps to draw out the juices of the 
meat. In boiling water it draws them out a little, 
but the heat of the water converts them into a thin 
albuminous coating for the meat which assists in 
keeping in the juices.- 

Nearly all vegetables should be put into boiling 
water instead of being put on the fire in cold and 
allowed to come to the boiling point. This is in 
order that the changes which are made in the cells 
and fibres may be made at once, before dissolvable 
substances like starch and sugar are soaked out into 
the water which is to be thrown away. Some watery 
vegetables, such as tomatoes and spinach need 
extremely little water, sometimes no more than 
adheres to them after they have been washed. These 
things are really stewed, not boiled. White pota- 
toes should be boiled gently, that the outsides may 
not break and fall off as they soften. 

In most cases, the boiling water in which vege- 
tables are put should be salted, in the proportion 
of a tablespoonful of salt to two quarts of water. 
This not only seasons them but makes the tempera- 
ture of the water somewhat greater. There are some 
exceptions to this, however; green corn is one of them; 
salt yellows and toughens it. Many authorities 



280 HOUSEKEEPING 

will tell you not to salt peas until they are nearly 
cooked. 

As soon as vegetables are tender they should be 
drained. Potatoes, whether boiled or baked, should 
not be covered after they are drained or taken from 
the oven. They should dry in the air, not soak in 
their own steam. 

Stewing. — Stewing resembles boiling. It is boil- 
ing done in the juices of the article cooked increased 
with a little water. As we wish some of the juices 
to flow out, we put food to be stewed into cold water. 
When it has been brought gradually to the boiling 
point, the heat should then be lowered to the sim- 
mering point and the food allowed to simmer for a 
long while. Stewing is a slow method of cooking 
but it makes digestible and appetizing meat and 
coarse vegetables which otherwise would be hard 
fare. To food which is neither coarse nor tough, 
it imparts a particularly delectable flavour. Stewed 
mushrooms are a good example of this. 

Braising. — Braising is rather like stewing done 
in the oven. A tightly covered pan or earthenware 
dish is required for it and a "slow" oven. The 
meat is shut in the pan with seasonings and a little 
water, and cooked long and slowly in the oven. 

Braising is sometimes done in a closely covered 



COOKING 281 

dish set in a moderately heated place on the top of 
the stove. 

Frying. — Frying is done in two ways, by immers- 
ing the article to be fried in deep, hot fat and also 
by laying it first on one side then on the other in a 
pan in which there is a little hot fat. This latter 
method is often called sauteing. 

The object of frying is quickly to form a crisp, 
brown crust round the oyster, croquette, doughnut 
or whatever is being cooked, which will not allow 
the flavour and constituents of the food to escape 
into the fat, nor the fat to penetrate into the food. 
Provided this is accomplished, frying is an entirely 
defensible mode of cooking, but imperfectly done 
it is a particularly unwholesome method. 

The temperature of the fat is the point for chief 
concern. If it is much below 380°, it will soak into 
the articles put into it, and the result will be food 
which is unpleasant to look at and hurtful to eat. 
If the temperature of the fat is much above 380°, 
food put into it will become almost instantly dark 
and hard. 

Fat at the right temperature for frying is per- 
fectly still and smokes a very little. An inch cube 
of bread dropped into it will become brown in one 
minute. 



282 HOUSEKEEPING 

Articles which are to be fried should be as dry 
as possible because water lowers the temperature 
of the fat and makes it sputter. They should also 
not be very cold as this likewise cools the fat. 

Lard, suet, drippings, olive oil and combinations 
of these things are used for frying because they can 
be raised to a very high temperature. We cannot 
fry in water because it can never be made hot enough 
to crisp anything. Fried articles must be carefully 
drained, it is well if they can be laid on a paper 
or a netting for this purpose. 

Roasting. — Roasting, strictly speaking, is now 
rarely done. It is the method of cooking joints of 
meat by hanging them before an open fire. Roast- 
ing done in the oven is really a form of baking. The 
process requires a very hot oven that the outside 
of the meat may be in crusted with melted fat and 
albumen which will keep the juices inside. Meat 
for roasting is first rubbed with flour and salt; the 
salt starts the juices, the flour combines with them 
and helps in the incrusting just mentioned. It is 
well to put a few spoonfuls of drippings or some 
fat from the meat into the pan, for this, as we 
have noted, becomes hotter than water. If the piece 
of meat is very large, or requires thorough cooking 
as in the case of pork and veal, water may be put 



COOKING 283 

in the pan as soon as the outside is incrusted. This 
will reduce the temperature and make the roasting 
slower and more thorough. It is most satisfactory 
to have a rack in the roasting pan, that the meat 
may stand over, not in, the water. 

Roasting meat must be often "basted," that is, 
spoonfuls of the hot fat or water in the pan must 
be poured over the meat now and again to keep 
the outside from hardening and charring. The 
occasional opening of the oven door for this purpose 
also lets fresh air into the oven and thus improves 
the flavour of the meat. 

Baking. — Because we have come to use the word 
which meant cooking meat before the fire for cook- 
ing it in the oven, we more usually apply the word 
baking to the cooking of bread, cake, vegetables, 
puddings and the many other things which we cook 
by shutting them up in the dry heat of the oven. 

None of these articles require as high a temperature 
as meat. You cannot bear to put your hand into 
an oven which is ready for a roast of meat; in an 
oven ready for bread you can hold your hand a min- 
ute or two. The reason for this is that the juices 
and steam are to be kept inside meat, but the gases 
in bread are to be let out, the crust must not there- 
fore harden at once. One of the things which must 



284 HOUSEKEEPING 

be guarded against when baking bread in a gas 
range is the danger of having the oven so hot at first 
that a hard crust is formed on the bread before the 
crumb is sufficiently baked. 

It is not always possible to regulate the heat of 
the oven with dampers. Should this be the case 
and the oven is too hot at the top, lay a paper or a 
pie-plate over the article which is baking. If it is 
too hot on the bottom set the pan containing the food 
on an oven rack or on an inverted pie-plate. While 
bread or cake are baking the oven door should only 
be opened when necessary and then quickly closed, 
for cold air sometimes ruins such things. 

Things which are merely to be browned are set 
on a grate near the top of the oven. Things large 
or thick, which are to be baked through slowly are 
set on the bottom of the oven. Some substances 
dry a good deal during the process of baking; such 
are breads, cakes and puddings. The pans or 
dishes for such articles must be greased. Tins for 
cakes which require long baking are often lined with 
stiff greased paper, as this makes it more certain 
that the cake will not stick to the pan. 

A housewife should have a standard cook book 
to refer to for the details of cooking. Besides this, 
it is well for her to gather from books and magazines 



COOKING 285 

serviceable receipts and suggestions about house- 
hold matters. These may be copied into an indexed 
blank book, though I believe something in the nature 
of a card catalogue would be better for the purpose. 

2. THE PREPARATIONS 

Food usually needs some preparation for the 
processes of cooking. Though it requires nothing 
more, it is almost invariably first washed in clean, 
fresh water. 

Meat. — Fresh meat should be rinsed quickly in 
cold water. Meat which has been smoked or salted 
often needs scrubbing with a brush as well as rinsing, 
and salt meat frequently requires to be soaked for 
several hours. 

Poultry. — ^Poultry is usually sent to the market 
killed and plucked, and is sometimes "drawn" 
before it is sent from the market to the buyer. In 
country places it is often brought to the housewife 
alive and though this has inconveniences it has 
also the great advantage that the poultry can then 
be drawn immediately after it is killed, which seems 
the more clean and more reasonable method. 

To the housewife who finds herself in the pre- 
dicament of having a live chicken when she needs 



286 HOUSEKEEPING 

a dead one, I can say from experience that beheading 
is the least offensive method for the unskilled to 
employ. Use a sharp axe or hatchet and strike hard. 
Do not be distressed by the convulsive movements 
which follow, they do not indicate suffering. They 
happen because the intense throbbing thing, we call 
life cannot be snuffed out like a candle. Even in 
a small creature it is a tremendous rush and swirl 
which cannot be stopped on the instant. This is ' 
a piece of work which it is not necessary for a house- 
keeper to learn to do; she need only know that she 
can do it if she must. I have found in my own 
housekeeping that it is more economical to hire my 
neighbour, black Caroline to kill the chickens, because 
she can walk out of the kitchen door with two chick- 
ens in her hand, kill them, and come back again 
without interrupting the camp-meeting hymn she 
is singing and I am afraid I must admit that I cannot 
do the same thing without shivering and tears. 

A few minutes after the poultry is killed it should 
be plucked. Some people scald it to make the 
feathers come out more easily; others, on reasonable 
grounds, heartily disapprove of this performance 
and insist on "dry picking." Hold the fowl by the 
feet and pull the feathers out toward the head, 
unless the skin proves to be very tender ; in that case 



COOKING 287 

pull the other way. Carefully remove all the little 
black pin-feathers. Put a screw of paper on the 
stove, light it and singe the chicken quickly to remove 
hairs and down. If the head has not previously 
been removed, cut it off about an inch from the 
body. Just below where the neck and body join 
you will feel through the skin a rough movable lump. 
This is the crop and should be removed by loosening 
the skin from the neck and drawing up the crop 
between the two. Cut it off close to the body. 
Cut off the legs at the joint and cut out a little oil 
bag which you will find on top of the tail. 

When chickens are split down the back for broil- 
ing, or cut into pieces for fricasseeing or frying, it 
is a simple matter to remove the internal organs. 
If, however, they must be drawn for roasting, it takes 
some skill to do it. It is an assistance to remember 
that the organs lie more or less bound together in 
the cavity of the body, somewhat as the seeds lie 
in the cavity of a cantaloupe. The organs should 
be disordered as little as possible in the removal, 
as some of them, notably the gall-bag of the liver, 
contain substances which affect the taste of the 
meat if they touch it. As the chicken lies breast up, 
make a short crosswise slit in it a little distance 
from the tail. Put one or two fingers into this open- 



288 HOUSEKEEPING 

ing keeping them close to the walls of the cavity, 
and gently loosen the organs, gradually working 
them out at the slit. Some strength is needed for 
this, but it should be applied gently. 

Be sure that all the organs are removed, then 
wash the fowl under the faucet or in a pan of 
cold water. Wipe it dry with a clean cloth. The 
washing should be done with especial thoroughness 
if the fowl has remained long undrawn. 

Carefully separate the heart, liver and gizzard 
from the other organs. Cut the veins from the 
heart. Trim the fat from the gizzard, cut a slit 
in the thick part and draw the slit open; the inner 
lining must be removed, unbroken if possible. Wash 
these giblets carefully, put them at once on the fire 
in cold water and simmer until tender. 

Eggs. — Eggs should be washed when they are 
brought into the house; the shells are then clean to 
be used for clearing coffee or soup. 

When preparing eggs for cooking, do not break 
them one after another into the bowl in which they 
are to be beaten, but put each one into a cup and 
them slip it into the bowl. If this precaution is 
not taken, an egg unfit for use may be dropped into 
a bowl with several fresh ones and all will be wasted. 

Some people separate the white of an egg from 



COOKING 289 

the yolk by cracking a small piece from one end and 
pouring out the white, leaving the yolk in the shell 
until last; others break the egg through the middle 
by striking it on the edge of the cup and pass the 
yolk back aind forth from one half-shell to the other 
until all the white has run into the cup. Whatever 
method is used, care must be taken that no yolk 
runs into the white as this prevents the white from 
frothing. It is on this account that the whites and 
yolks are beaten separately when we want eggs 
especially frothy. Eggs also froth better when they 
are very cold. 

They are beaten before they are used because we 
sometimes wish to put air into a mixture by this 
means. 

Fish. — Large fish are usually prepared and sold 
in pieces by the fish dealer. Small fish are usually 
left whole and should be cleaned as soon as possible 
after they are bought. First remove the scales by 
scraping them toward the head with the back of a 
knife. Hold the knife flat that it may slip under the 
scales. Have a pan of cold water at hand in which 
to rinse the knife frequently. Cut off the head just 
below the gills. Slit the body at the thinner edge 
and remove the entrails. Run the point of the knife 
along the backbone to remove the blood which lies 



290 HOUSEKEEPING 

there. Cut off the tail last, as it is a convenient 
handle. Shad containing roe must be slit very 
carefully, that the roe may not be cut or broken. 
Fish which are to be served with heads and tails 
on are slit from the gills half way down the body 
and the entrails removed as before described. 

After fish are cleaned, wash them carefully in cold 
water — some people prefer to use salted water — then 
salt inside and out and lay them on a plate in a cool 
place — ^not the refrigerator — until it is time to 
cook them. Wash off the salt and season them 
again before cooking. 

If a piece of fish which is to be boiled is wrapped 
in a thin cloth the motion of the water will not 
break it. 

Shell-Fish. — Receipts for cooking oysters or clams 
which begin, "Open the oysters" — or "Take two 
dozen clams from the shells" — are rather amusing 
when one remembers what an exaggerated pleasure 
in retirement these creatures take. They do not 
open their shells when one reads a receipt at them. 

Oysters. — When oysters are cooked in their shells 
heat opens them; otherwise, some one must open 
them by hand. A small thin knife with an iron 
handle is best for this work. The hand in which 
the oyster is held should be protected with a heavy 



COOKING 291 

glove or mitten. If you can find no place where 
the thin point of the knife can be pushed between 
the shells, rap the edge of the oyster with the handle 
of the knife until some little crack is made into which 
the point can be thrust, then gently but firmly work 
the shells apart. Put the oysters into a bowl. The 
opening should be as cleanly a performance as pos- 
sible, for the oysters are the better for not being 
washed. Instead of washing them, lift them one 
or two at a time from one bowl to another, looking 
them over carefully for any bits of shell. It is better 
to wash them if they have not been opened in the 
house. If oysters are to be cooked or served in their 
shells, the shells must be thoroughly scrubbed. 

Clams. — Clams, whether thin shell, or hard shell, 
should be scrubbed, rinsed, and laid in a pot with 
not more than a half-cupful of water. Not more, 
because the juice from the clams should be diluted 
as little as possible. Cover the pot closely. As 
soon as the shells open the clams are cooked. When 
hard shell clams are taken from the shells, clip off 
with scissors the hard rim from each one. The 
clam juice should be saved and put aside to settle, 
the clear liquor can then be poured off. It is used 
to some extent in nearly all dishes made from clams. 

If an oyster or a clam has its shells open, pick 



292 HOUSEKEEPING 

it up in your hand. If it closes it is all right, if it 
remains open throw it away for it is dead. Only 
death prevents these creatures from shutting their 
doors. 

Scallops. — Scallops as we see them on the table 
or as they come prepared from the market, are really 
the muscles of the scallop which hold its shells 
together. Whole scallops are boiled and the muscle 
removed when the shells open. 

Lobsters. — ^Lobsters are sometimes bought alive, 
sometimes already boiled. They are not exactly 
green or brown or blue when alive, but are bright 
red when cooked. A boiled lobster is opened by 
splitting the body and tail lengthwise and cracking 
the claws. The firm white and red meat and a bit 
called the "coral" are the parts to be eaten. The 
head, a sand-pouch near the throat, the stomach 
and intestines and the tough, feathery gills on the 
under side of the body must not be used. 

Crabs. — Hard shell crabs are cooked by plunging 
them into salted boiling water for fifteen or twenty 
minutes. They change in colour as lobsters do. 
If you wish to open them, first remove the little flap 
which folds down on the under shell, then, placing 
your thumbs at the place where the flap was fastened 
on, draw the upper and lower shells apart. A little, 



COOKING 293 

grayish sand pocket sometimes adheres to one shell, 
sometimes to the other. This and the gray, spongy 
fingers attached to the lower shell should be removed 
and thrown away. 

Before soft shell crabs are cooked, the sand- 
pocket and spongy substances under the edges of 
the shell should be removed. The upper shell is 
soft enough to be turned back for this purpose. 

Vegetables. — Almost without exception, vegetables 
are prepared for cooking by being washed and laid 
in cold water to be freshened. Some kinds require 
no other preparation; others must be also scraped 
or peeled or shelled or husked. 

Those vegetables which require no preparation 
for cooking except washing and freshening are: 
asparagus, beets, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach and 
sweet potatoes. 

Cress, celery, endive, lettuce and radishes require 
this same preparation, but are not usually cooked. 

One must be careful not to break the skins of beets 
and not to cut their tops too close, that the juices 
may not flow out and leave the beet colourless and 
tasteless. 

Salt should be put in the water in which cabbage 
and cauliflower are freshened and the cabbage 
heads should be divided into quarters that the small 



294 HOUSEKEEPING 

insects which these vegetables are apt to contain 
may be driven out. 

The washing of spinach requires especial care. 
It is well to use two pans that the spinach may be 
lifted back and forth from one to the other and the 
sand left in the bottom of the pans. A little salt 
should be put into one of the waters to expel insects. 

Vegetables which require also to be scraped 
are, carrots, oyster plant, parsnips and new 
potatoes. 

Vegetables which require to be peeled as well as 
to be washed and freshened are: cucumbers, egg 
plant, mushrooms, onions, white potatoes, squash, 
turnips and tomatoes. 

Egg plant is sliced, but the slices are not always 
peeled. It is freshened in salted water. 

Cucumbers and tomatoes are laid in water before 
they are peeled instead of afterward. Thick pieces 
should be cut from the ends and sides of cucumbers 
as the skin contains unwholesome juices. 

Onions are less unpleasant to peel if held under 
water during the process. 

Vegetables which also require shelling or husking 
are : lima beans, green peas and green corn. 

Corn silk may easily be removed from the ears 
with a brush. 



COOKING 295 

Dried beans and peas require many hours of soak- 
ing to make them ready to be cooked. 

String beans are prepared by a process peculiar 
to themselves. Some people cut a thin strip from 
each side of the pod; others cut the pointed end 
toward one side, the stem end toward the other and 
draw away the strings with the cut pieces. The 
point of importance is to get rid of the strings 
absolutely. 

Rice is prepared by thorough washing. A good 
way to accomplish this is to put the rice in a coarse 
strainer and lower it into a pan of water. Lift and 
stir the rice, then raise the strainer from the pan, 
change the water and repeat the washing process. 
Continue to repeat this until the water remains 
clear. 

Fruit and Berries. — Fruit should be washed and 
wiped dry when it is brought from the market. 
It is then ready for use in any way that may be 
desired. Thick skinned fruits such as pears and 
apples are peeled before they are cooked. Dried 
fruit is usually soaked before it is cooked. 

It is desirable that berries which come from the 
market or store should be washed. This can best be 
accomplished by putting them in a coarse sieve or 
colander and holding them under a gently running 



296 HOUSEKEEPING 

faucet. It is a good thing to spread them on a clean 
paper or cloth to dry. When berries are picked 
in the garden, one may have the luxury of eating 
them unwashed. 

Mixtures. — There are certain articles of food, 
different and differently prepared from any hitherto 
mentioned, which might be called as a class, mix- 
tures. They are dishes made by mixing several 
food substances together, and are called bread, 
cake, pudding, pastry, sauces and many other names. 

Bread. — Of these mixtures bread is the most 
important and the most difficult to make. Receipts 
for bread are the simplest ones we have, yet a detailed 
description of bread-making might easily fill a book. 
To read such a description for the first time would 
very probably shock a careful housewife. She has 
learned to protect her stores of food from any pro- 
cesses of fermentation; she regards the growth of 
fungus in the cellar or of mould on the back of the 
refrigerator as an indication of unhealthful dampness, 
perhaps of dirt; she probably has some terror of 
germs and bacteria. Is it not rather shocking then, 
to learn that, without fermentation, fungus and bacte- 
ria, she could not make the sweet, clean bread which 
she bakes every two or three days. When she has 
thought out these puzzling facts, she will find that 



COOKING 297 

each one of her bakings is a sermon from the text 
that all things work together for good if one knows 
the secret of their use. 

Yeast is a form of bacteria — a germ — a micro- 
scopic fungus which floats about in the air. I find 
that a Government Report on the subject calls this 
"wild yeast." One cannot resist following out the 
idea thus suggested, and saying that this wild species 
may be caught by the housewife in mixtures of warm 
hops, potato and flour and "domesticated" for use 
in bread making. 

The little yeast plants multiply quickly when they 
find something which they like to feed upon, and it 
happens that they like a mixture of flour and water 
which is neither very hot nor very cold. There- 
fore, when we put yeast into dough the little plants 
feed and multiply and in doing so change the charac- 
ter of the dough. They cause it to ferment, just as 
grape or apple juice ferments. When the carbo- 
hydrate substances in the flour, that is, the starches 
and sugars, ferment they change, and in the change 
form alcohol and carbon dioxide. When this per- 
formance is at its height, we put the dough into the 
oven, the yeast plant is killed by the heat and a stop 
thus put to its activities. Another result of putting 
the bread into the oven is that the bubbles of gas 



298 HOUSEKEEPING 

formed by fermentation expand with the heat. The 
gas escapes, but not before the walls of the bubbles 
have been hardened sufficiently by heat to make the 
bread full of tiny holes — "porous" we call it, and 
"light." 

The following receipt is a usual one for a small 
batch of bread: 

2 quarts of flour. 1 half cake of yeast soaked in a 

1 tablespoonful of salt. cup of milk. 

1 " " sugar. 2 cups of milk or water. 

1 " " lard. 

The sugar and the lard are not necessary to bread 
making but are frequently used; the lard because 
it makes bread tender and moist, the sugar to take 
the place of some of the sugar in the flour which is 
used up in fermentation. 

Without the other four ingredients, flour, salt, 
*' wetting" and yeast, we could not have bread. 

The yeast is either a little compressed cake of 
useful bacteria, or it is a liquid in which this bac- 
teria has congregated. 

The flour is a nourishing but unattractive substance 
which we wish the yeast plant to change into spongy, 
pleasant-flavoured, digestible food. 

The salt assists in making the pleasant flavour 
and also helps to prevent fermentation from going 



COOKING 299 

beyond the desired point. Unless the fermenta- 
tion of bread stops at the right time, changes occur 
in the dough like those which take place in milk 
when it sours, and in cider when it turns to vinegar. 

Milk or water are necessary to give the flour the 
moist consistency which is agreeable to the growth 
of yeast plants. It is sometimes necessary to heat 
the *' wetting" a little, for the temperature of the 
dough to be favourable to the activity of the yeast 
must be not less than 70° F. nor more than 90° F. 

Directions for mixing bread frequently tell you 
to "set a sponge." This is done by mixing all the 
ingredients except the flour, and then stirring into 
them just enough flour to make a thick batter. This 
mixture is set in a temperature between 70° and 90° 
and allowed to ferment. The "sponge" is a more 
watery mixture than dough and in it the yeast 
has an especially easy opportunity to develop. The 
setting of a sponge also serves as a test of the yeast. 
If the yeast does not greatly increase the quantity 
of the sponge and make it full of bubbles, it will 
not be strong enough to affect the stiffer dough. 

When the sponge has increased to about twice its 
size in the beginning, enough flour is stirred in to 
make kneading possible. The object of kneading 
is that the yeast may be distributed through the flour 



SOO HOUSEKEEPING 

so evenly that its effect upon all parts of the dough 
will be the same. 

After the kneading the bread is "set to rise," 
that is it is put in a comfortably warm place, out of 
the way of draughts, and left while the yeast plants 
multiply and ferment the bread. 

When the dough has increased to about twice 
its original size, it is kneaded a little more, chiefly 
to break the bigger bubbles which would make holes 
in the bread. It is then moulded into loaves and 
rolls and set to rise again, this last because in the 
moulding it has acquired a little more flour and its 
sponginess has been somewhat compressed. It is 
finally baked, as has been said, to stop fermentation 
and preserve the porous character of the bread. 
Baking also forms the pleasant-flavoured crust. 

A person of inquiring mind may observe in the 
table of food values given in the previous chapter 
that the nourishing constituents are greater in quan- 
tity in flour than, with a slight exception in fat and 
ash, they are in bread. The natural question will 
then be, why take all this trouble to cultivate yeast 
plants in flour when the result furnishes less nour- 
ishment than flour .? Why not mix flour and water 
and bake it.? This would be '* unleavened bread" 
which is somewhat like crackers, somewhat like 



COOKING 301 

macaroni, both of which register higher in nourishing 
constituents than bread. Nevertheless, they do not 
serve our purpose as well as bread, because they 
are much more hard to digest and more quickly 
create distaste. The body must not only have 
nourishment supplied to it, it must have it supplied 
in forms which it can use without serious difficulty. 
It is quite possible, therefore, to obtain more actual 
nourishment from digestible, appetizing bread which 
contains a smaller per cent, of nutriment, than from 
a crude and insipid flour mixture which contains 
a greater per cent. 

Cake. — ^There are other methods of making food 
"light" besides putting yeast into it. Two of these 
are commonly used in making cake and fancy 
breads. Sponge cakes are made light by beating 
air into the eggs used. Cakes which contain butter, 
and breads which contain no yeast are made light 
with baking powder, which is a mixture of soda and 
cream of tartar, or with soda and cream of tartar put 
in separately. Soda is an alkali; cream of tarter is 
an acid. A combination of the two liberates carbonic 
acid gas to raise the cake and also counteracts the 
poisonous properties of the soda. Three rounded 
teaspoonfuls of baking powder produce the same 
effect as one level teaspoonful of soda and two 



302 HOUSEKEEPING 

rounded teaspoonfuls of cream of tartar. Therefore, 
if a receipt calls for soda and cream of tartar and 
we have only baking powder, or vice versa, we may 
use one for the other if we remember this equality. 

One frequently finds soda and not cream of tartar 
called for in receipts in which sour milk or molasses 
is required. In such cases the acid in the milk 
or in the molasses will take the place of that usually 
furnished by cream of tartar. Soda and cream of 
tartar, or baking powder, should be put into the 
flour before it is sifted, they are thus thoroughly 
mixed with it and also sifted. 

The ingredients of fancy breads and cake must 
be mixed in ways which will not interfere with the 
means by which they are made light. 

It is usually a good plan when mixing muffins, 
gems, Sally Lunn or anything of the kind which does 
not require kneading, to put all the dry ingredients 
together in one bowl, all the wet ones together in 
another bowl, then to stir the wet ones into the dry 
ones and if there are eggs in the mixture fold in the 
beaten whites last. 

Whites of eggs are nearly always the last thing 
to be put into any mixture, because if they are moved 
about more than is necessary to get them in, much 
of the air in them will be lost. 



COOKING 303 

The ingredients of cake are usually mixed in the 
following order: butter and sugar beaten together 
to a creamy consistency; beaten yolks of eggs; milk 
or water and flavouring; flour and baking powder; 
whites of eggs. 

The order for mixing a sponge cake is the same 
except that some of the ingredients mentioned in 
this list will be omitted. 

The reason that flour is put in last, or next to the 
last, is that it contains the baking powder or the soda 
and cream of tartar. When these substances are 
wet they give off gas which is to make the cake light, 
therefore they should not be wet until just before the 
cake is ready for the oven. 

Fruit is put into a cake last of all. It is floured 
before it is put in to keep the pieces from sticking 
together, and to keep the moisture they contain 
from injuring the cake. 

Because the lightness of cake depends upon bub- 
bles of air or gas which in the course of time collapse, 
cake batter should be baked as soon as mixed. That 
this may be possible, the fire should be put into 
suitable condition and the untensils and materials 
gathered and prepared before the mixing begins. 

Pastry. — Pastry mixtures differ from bread or 
cake mixtures in that they are flaky instead of spongy. 



304 HOUSEKEEPING 

Things flake when they are composed of layers; 
the point then is to make pastry by a process which 
will produce layers. When a smooth dough has 
been made of flour, salt and cold water, it is rolled 
lightly to a thin sheet, tiny pieces of butter are scat- 
tered over it and a very little flour sprinkled on it. 
The sheet is then doubled, rolled to the former thick- 
ness, butter and flour are applied to it as before and 
it is again doubled. This is repeated several times. 
When it is finally ready for the oven it is in layers 
of dough and butter. When the heat of the oven 
melts the butter and expands the air between the 
layers, they separate a little, that is, they flake. 

By means of this theory of pastry one can better 
understand the directions given in pastry receipts. 
For example, the ingredients must be kept cold that 
the butter and dough may not combine during the 
rolling. The pastry must be handled lightly and 
never pressed or pounded because this would press 
out the air and crush the layers into each other. 

The filling of pies sometimes presents diflSculties. 
A very juicy filling soaks the under crust. One 
remedy used for this is to bake the bottom crust 
before filling the pie; another is to brush it over 
with white of egg. The very best way to prevent 
the under crust of a pie from being soggy and indi- 



COOKING 305 

gestible is not to have one. Put the fruits into a 
fairly deep baking-dish and cover it with a flaky 
top crust. This is an English method which we 
should do well to follow. The result is more fruit 
and less crust, and none of that under crust which 
whatever pains you take will more or less relapse into 
dough. 

Juicy pies must not be filled quite full, that they 
may not boil over in the oven. Openings cut in 
the crust help to prevent this; an inverted tea cup 
put into a deep pie is also a preventive. I am 
told that if the top crust is just laid over the pie 
and not fastened at the edges, the juice of the filling 
is less apt to run out. 

3. THE SEQUENCE 

Going into the kitchen to make one dish; or 
getting a supper for which much of the food has been 
previously prepared, gives no suggestion of one of 
the chief dijBSculties in getting meals. This diffi- 
culty is the sequence of work. Unless thoughtful 
and orderly arrangements are made, one dish will 
be done too early, another too late, the cook may 
find she is required to perform two pieces of work 
at once and the last moments before the meal will 



306 HOUSEKEEPING 

be crowded with more things than can possibly be 
done. 

The time required to cook different articles of 
food often furnishes a sort of schedule for getting 
the meal. Additional time must be allowed, how- 
ever, for preparations before cooking and for finish- 
ing touches after cooking. 

Except when a gas range is used the fire is the 
first thing to attend to. 

The other things to be arranged for naturally 
fall into three groups with intervals between in which 
work may be done which does not have to be timed. 

The first group contains things which take long 
to cook, such as baked and boiled meats, oatmeal, 
some puddings, old vegetables, and vegetables which 
are cooked slowly like stewed tomatoes. These 
things are prepared and put on the fire as soon as 
the fire is ready for them. 

Between this and the second group is an interval 
which may be used for preparing the second group 
and for setting the table, arranging salad, putting 
dishes to warm, etc. Sometimes a dessert has to 
be prepared in this interval, in that case the food of 
the second group may have to be made ready and 
the table set at the very beginning of things, before 
the fire is looked after. 



COOKING 307 

The second group contains vegetables and desserts 
which cook in from thirty to forty-five minutes, 
soup which is to be warmed, eggs which are to be 
boiled hard to accompany vegetables, anything 
which takes a half or three-quarters of an hour to 
cook or which is needed in the concluding prepara- 
tions of the other food. 

After this second group is on the fire comes another 
interval in which things may be done which were 
left over from the other interval and in which cold 
food such as bread, butter and milk may be put on 
the table. In this time also preparation must be 
made for the cooking necessary to the third group. 
Some of these are, mixing thickening for gravy, 
shelling hard-boiled eggs for spinach, and collecting on 
the kitchen table seasonings, butter and milk for 
the cooked vegetables and meat. 

The third group contains things which must be 
done a very brief time before the meal. These are 
broiling meat, preparing cooked vegetables for the 
table, making sauces and gravy, putting beaten egg 
or vermicelli in soup and getting everything arranged 
in dishes. 

Then there are three last things for the housewife 
to do before the meal : to see that the fire is in condi- 
tion to leave, that soiled pots and pans are filled 



308 HOUSEKEEPING 

with water, and last of all to take an instant to wash 
her hands, remove her apron and make herself tidy. 

There are one or two ways in which preparations 
for meals may be simplified. For any large meal 
but especially for dinner served late in the day, 
as many preparations as may be, should be made 
in the morning or at luncheon time. When making 
the menu for a meal do not select things which con- 
flict; for instance, a roast of meat and a delicate 
pudding cannot be baked at the same time. Like- 
wise, it is inconvenient, not to say unappetizing to 
have the meat and vegetables and dessert for a meal 
all boiled or all baked or all fried. Try not to have 
two things for the same meal which will be spoiled 
if they are not served the instant they are cooked. 

At the end of this chapter about food, I have the 
desire to put a little verse which often runs in my 
head when I am getting meals. 

" Though o'er the hoard the constellations shine j 
Austere the feast for timers retainers spread; 
Laughter the salt of life, and love the wine. 
Sleep the sweet herbs, and work the bitter bread." 



A TIME TABLE 



Method. 



Hours. 



Minutes. 



Asparagus 

Beans, lima 

Beans, string .... 

Beef 

Beefsteak 

Beef, corned 

Beets, young 

Beets, old 

Bread, wheat .... 

Bread, corn 

Bread, brown. . . . 

Cabbage 

Cauliflower 

Cake, sponge .... 

Cake, plain 

Cake, fruit 

Cake, layer 

Carrots 

Chicken 

Chicken 

Chicken 

Celery 

Chops 

Cookies 

Corn 

Custard 

Duck 

Dumpling, apple . 

Eggs, soft 

Eggs, hard 

Eggs. . ._ 

Fish, boiled or. . . 

Fish 

Gingerbread 

Ham 

Hominy 

Lamb 

Mutton, boiled or 

Macaroni 

Muffins 

Mushrooms 



boiled 

boiled 

boiled 

roasted 

broiled 

boiled 

boiled 

boiled 

baked 

baked 

steamed 

boiled 

boiled 

baked 

baked 

baked 

baked 

boiled 

roasted 

broiled 

boiled 

boiled 

broiled 

baked 

boiled 

baked 

roasted 

boiled 

boiled 

boiled 

fried 

baked 

fried 

baked 

boiled 

boiled 

roasted 

roasted 

boiled 

baked 

broiled 



3-4 
3H} 

2-3 



1-0 
1-0 



20-30 
45-60 
45-60 
12 per lb. 
6-10 
20 per lb. 
45-60 



40-60 
40-45 



15-35 
20-35 
45-60 
30-40 

io-is 

35-45 
20 per lb. 
20 

15-20 per lb. 
20-30 
6-10 
10-15 
12-20 
15-20 



3 
15-20 

5 

10-15 per lb. 
10-20 
20-30 
25 per lb. 



15-20 per lb. 

15-20 per lb. 

20-30 

15-30 

12 



309 



310 



HOUSEKEEPING 



Method. 


Hours. 


Minutes. 


stewed 




20 


boiled 




45-60 


fried 




3-5 


boiled 




45-60 


boiled 


1-0 




boiled 




30-45 


roasted 




30 per lb 


broiled 




20 


boiled 




25-30 


baked 




45 


boiled 




20-30 


boiled 




20-40 


fried 




10-15 


boiled 




30-45 


boiled 




25-35 


stewed 


1-0 




roasted 




20 per lb 


boiled 




45 


roasted 




20 per lb 



Mushrooms 

Oaions 

Oysters, broiled or. 

Oyster plant 

Oatmeal 

Parsnips 

Pork 

Park 

Potatoes 

Potatoes 

Peas 

Rice 

Sausage 

Spinach 

Squash 

Tomatoes 

Turkey, boiled or 

Turnips 

Veal 



WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 



3 teaspoonfuls, dry = 1 tablespoonful. 

4 teaspoonfuls, liquid = 1 tablespoonful. 

4 tablespoonfuls, liquid = 1 wineglassful = ^ gill. 

2 wineglassfuls, liquid = 1 gill = ^ cup. 
16 tablespoonfuls, liquid = 2 gills =1 cup. 
12 rounded tablespoonfuls, dry = 1 cup. 

i pint, liquid = 1 cup. 

4 wineglasses = 1 cup 

J lb. of flour = 1 cup 

1 lb. granulated sugar = 1 cup. 
i lb. butter, solid = 1 cup. 

4 gills =: 1 pint. 

2 cups = 1 pint. 
2^ints = 1 quart 

4 quarts = 1 gallon. 

II 

1 tablespoonful, heaped, granulated sugar = 1 ounce. 

1 tablespoonful, rounded, butter =- 1 ounce. 

1 tablespoonful, liquid =: ^ ounce. 

1 tablespoonful, rounded, flour = ^ ounce. 

1 tablespoonful, rounded, coffee = ^ ounce. 

1 tablespoonful, rounded, powdered sugar =; i ounce 
16 ounces = 1 pound. 

4 cups of flour = 1 pound = 1 quart. 

2 cups butter, solid = 1 pound. 

2 cups granulated sugar = 1 pound. 
2^ cups powdered sugar = 1 pound. 

2 cups or 1 pint water or milk = 1 pound. 

1 pint chopped meat, solid = 1 poimd. 
10 eggs = 1 pound. 



Sll 



XIII 

WASHING AND IRONING 

THE day when we wear paper clothes and 
rarely wear them twice has not yet come. 
Meanwhile washing and ironing must be 
done, either in the home or elsewhere. Even when 
this work has been banished to a laundry or a house 
on a back street, it is yet desirable to have some 
knowledge of its processes, that when something 
goes wrong we may be able to tell what the trouble is. 
The laundry, like the kitchen, should be light 
coloured, cleanly, orderly and furnished only with 
articles needed for the work. I was taken in to see a 
laundry not long ago which had pale green walls and 
two sunny windows. It contained appliances for the 
work, a substantial laundress and a highly coloured 
picture of the Madonna. There was also a cricket, 
not the kind you sit on, but the kind that chirps. 

1. APPLIANCES 

As the appliances for washing and ironing are 
many, and some of them for uses not entirely obvious, 

3U 



WASHING AND IRONING 313 

a list with a few comments on each item may be 
useful. 

Tubs. — Two are needed, three are more con- 
venient. When the washing is finished, the tubs 
should be scrubbed, rinsed and dried before the 
covers are closed. Portable wooden tubs also need 
scrubbing and rinsing, but must not be allowed 
to get very dry. If they are kept in a warm, dry 
place, put a little clean water into each one. When 
allowed to dry, the staves shrink and the tubs leak. 
That tubs are called portable does not mean they 
should be carried. About one woman in a dozen 
is really able to carry a tub with water in it. It is 
not the weight but the attitude in which one is 
compelled to lift it that makes the trouble. If 
there is no one to help to carry the tub, empty it by 
the pailful; it takes less time than being laid up 
with a strain. 

A washboard. — Washboards are made of cor- 
rugated glass or metal and wood. They should be 
rinsed when the rubbing is finished and kept dry 
when not in use. Before putting the board into 
the tub, see that it has no rough or sharp places 
which may tear clothes or hands. 

A washboiler and a ivashstick. — Keep the boiler 
scrupulously dry when not in use. A speck of rust 



314 HOUSEKEEPING 

the size of a pinhead can make serious trouble. 
The stick is a fairly long, smooth, clean one with 
which to move and lift scalding hot clothes. 

A wringer. — Rinse and dry it carefully before 
putting it away. At some other time than in the 
midst of washing, it is well to study out the con- 
trivance which regulates the width of the opening 
between the rollers, that one may be able to change 
it easily and quickly for the wringing of thick or thin 
articles. The opening should be narrow enough to 
make turning the handle quite active exercise, but 
wide enough to prevent any wrenching or dragging 
of wringer or clothes. 

A clothesline. — A length of clean rope which 
caii be put up and taken down each time it is needed 
is probably the most satisfactory clothes line. Per- 
manent lines of twisted wire are good, if one may 
have permanent lines. These must be wiped with 
a damp cloth before the clothes are hung out. This 
rule also holds good for any line which is left out in 
the weather, but rope lines should not be left out if 
it can be avoided, for they soon become blackened and 
sodden. When buying a clothesline, see that it 
is not too thick nor too thin for average clothes- 
pins. 

Clothespins. — These must be kept clean, either 



WASHING AND IRONING 315 

by frequently getting new ones, or by scrubbing the 
old ones, and also by keeping them, when not in 
use, in a covered box or basket. 

Clothes "poles. — These are sticks eight or ten 
feet long, and notched deeply in one end. When the 
line sags between its supports with the weight of 
the clothes, it is raised with one of the poles. The 
notch holds the line and the other end rests on the 
ground. 

A clothes basket. — This article is used for 
carrying clothes from place to place. If it is used 
only for purposes connected with washing and 
ironing it will remain for a longer time fit for those 
purposes. 

A laundry stove. — This stove is not necessary 
when the washing and ironing are done in the 
kitchen, yet it is more convenient to have one if 
the size of the kitchen permits. Set on its top, 
the wash-boiler is at a convenient height; irons heat 
more evenly upon it, and are not in danger of being 
splashed from the cooking. 

An ironing board. — This appliance is frequently 
wider at one end than at the other, because the 
width of the larger end is convenient to iron on, 
and the narrowness of the other end is easily put 
through the top of a skirt or other garment which 



316 HOUSEKEEPING 

is slipped over the board for ironing. The board 
is first padded with several thicknesses of blanket 
or felt stretched smooth; a clean, white cotton cloth 
is then stretched over it and sewed or tacked very 
neatly along one edge and at the ends. All the 
coverings must be stretched and fastened very tightly 
to prevent wrinkles which would mark the clothes. 
The padding keeps the edges of the board from 
cutting through or marking the clothes, it fur- 
nishes a smooth, elastic surface for the sliding 
movement of the iron, and it makes it possible to 
iron embroidery, lace or tucks in relief, by press- 
ing them into the padding with the iron. 

Some boards are made with folding legs which 
are a convenience if substantial and well braced. 
Besides a large board, it is well to have a small 
bosom board; they are not merely for shirts but 
are convenient also for ironing small articles at 
other times than on a regular ironing day. A sleeve 
board is likewise a helpful addition to the laundry 
fittings. 

Irons. — To do a family ironing at least six irons 
are needed. Do not keep them on a stove with fire 
in it except when they are in use. They are spoiled 
by being constantly heated and cooled, and they get 
dirty. Water is not good for them. If they are 



WASHING AND IRONING 317 

splashed or smoked they must be washed, but it is 
better not to wash them regularly. Cooling a very 
hot iron by immersing it in a pail of water is bad 
for the iron, and is a careless practice besides; it 
is rectifying a neglect with a violent remedy. 

If irons are rough or troublesome about stick- 
ing, scrape and wipe them clean, then rub their 
bottoms and sides with a piece of beeswax tied in a 
cloth. In the country, rub them on a sandy place 
in the garden path. I am told that it is good — 
and pleasant — to rub them on pine-needles. When 
irons are put away, turn the bottoms up. If they 
are put away for a long time, it is well to give them 
a thin coating of beeswax. 

If you have ever seen any one test an iron with a 
wet finger to see if it is hot, you will only need the 
courage to try to be able to do it. Wet your finger 
in your mouth and strike quickly and lightly on 
the bottom of the iron; if it — spits, to put it elegantly, 
the iron is right for average ironing. Rub it on a 
paper or a cloth and judge from the effect whether 
it is clean and of the right temperature for the 
work you are doing. 

Iron holders. — It is well to have two or three 
of these articles. Those made of asbestos covered 
with bed ticking are excellent. Even when irons 



318 HOUSEKEEPING 

have a detachable handle, an iron holder will be 
needed for a holder rests and spares the hand. 
They are sometimes made with a little pocket 
into which the ends of the fingers can be 
thrust; it is a good arrangement, for finger-ends 
have to be so near the iron that they sometimes 
get scorched. 

An iron stand. — A stand is necessary to rest the 
iron on when the laundress needs both hands to 
arrange the article she is ironing. If one is hard 
put to it for a substitute, a horse-shoe, or a piece of 
fire-brick will serve, the latter is especially good 
because it holds heat. 

A clothes horse. — The more closely it folds up and 
the more rungs it has when unfolded, the better the 
clothes horse. Its chief use is to provide a place 
close at hand where newly ironed articles may be 
hung. Such a place is necessary because the 
articles are still a trifle damp and because one does 
not wish to walk any great distance to dispose of 
each piece. 

Wax, cloths and paper. — The use of these articles 
has already been mentioned. Pieces of wax can 
be bought already covered and attached to a con- 
venient little handle. Cloths and paper come from 
the housewife's store of useful things. 



WASHING AND IRONING 319 

Soap. — From the thousands of kinds of soap one 
can only make a choice by means of personal experi- 
ment, or by accepting the recommendation of some 
one who has already experimented. The kind pre- 
ferred once settled upon, it is best to buy enough 
at a time to last several months and to keep it exposed 
to the air, for unless soap dries a little before it is 
used, it wastes. 

Many preparations are sold to whiten clothes 
and make washing easy. To use them is a risk, 
and I have yet to see one which produced even 
as good temporary results as intelligent washing 
done with good soap and followed by thorough 
rinsing. 

Starch. — Starch — the raw material — should be 
protected from dust in a closed box or jar and 
not exposed to strong light, as this in time 
makes it slightly yellow. It is on this account 
that starch boxes are frequently lined with dark 
blue paper. 

Cold starch is merely starch dissolved in cold 
water. The proportion is a tablespoonful of starch 
to a pint of water. Stir until it seems dissolved, but 
stir again before dipping each article as it settles 
quickly. This starch is used just before ironing. 
Articles starched with it should be squeezed out 



320 HOUSEKEEPING 

well and folded in a dry cloth for ten or fifteen min- 
utes, then ironed. 

To make boiled starch, moisten three table- 
spoonfuls of starch with cold water. Stir and press 
out the lumps until it is smooth as cream. Then 
begin to stir it fast and pour on quickly a quart of 
boiling water. Allow it to boil about twenty min- 
utes. Toward the end of the time put in a piece 
of spermaceti as big as a walnut and stir until it 
is mixed with the starch. Substitutes for this are a 
bit of lard or a bit of butter. When clothes come 
home smelling of kerosene, it usually indicates that 
the laundress has used a dash of that oil as a sub- 
stitute for spermaceti. If candles are used in the 
home, it is well to save the ends for the starch. Wax 
or oil added to starch makes it smooth and keeps 
it from sticking to the irons. 

Bluing. — The purpose of bluing is to give white 
clothes a bluish tinge instead of the yellowish tinge 
they are apt to acquire. Substances for the pur- 
pose can be bought in several forms and are used 
greatly diluted. Two or three squeezes of a bluing 
ball, or a teaspoonful of liquid bluing is often a 
sufficient quantity for a tub of water. Bluing 
must be thoroughly stirred into water. If this 
is not done before clothes are put in, they will 



WASHING AND IRONING 321 

be streaked. Some people put a few drops of 
bluing in starch. 

2. THE PROCESS 

Where soiled clothes are to be kept during the 
interval between wash days is often a difficult ques- 
tion. A closet in the laundry made especially for 
the purpose is one solution; a hamper set in some 
ventilated but secluded spot in the house is another. 
It is unfortunate that often the bathroom is the 
only refuge for a clothes hamper. Articles like 
bed linen, which are only changed once a week 
should be changed as near the wash day as 
possible, but I do not think this matter so 
important that the change of linen should be 
made on Sunday. 

The first step in the process of washing is to sort 
the clothes, separating white, coloured, woollen and 
silk articles. The white division always, some- 
times the others, must be divided again into articles 
which have been put to personal uses, such as gar- 
ments, bed linen and towels, and those which have 
not, as table linen, and dish towels. 

Notice in sorting the clothes whether anything is 
stained, and if so, put it aside to be especially cared 



322 HOUSEKEEPING 

for. It is often impossible to remove stains after 
they have been soaped. 

Some people soak clothes over night; some put 
them to soak the first thing in the morning; some do 
not soak them at all. In any case, only white cotton 
or linen articles may be either soaked or boiled. 
Clothes are put for soaking into a tub of water, each 
article crushed together, not folded. They may be 
soaped or not, as one pleases. Linen which has not 
been put to personal uses should be laid in a sep- 
arate receptacle, or else not soaked. 

When the time has come to begin the washing 
let the water out of the tub in which the clothes are 
soaking, then cover them with clean, hot suds. Put 
in the wash board with its legs firmly planted against 
the side of the tub opposite to you. Soap and rub 
each article inside and out, and little or much, accord- 
ing to need. Attend especially to seams, hems and 
very soiled places. As the articles are washed, put 
each through the wringer, folding it with buttons in 
and narrow enough to go easily between the uprights 
of the wringer. Put them then either directly into 
the boiler, or into a basket which can be carried 
over to the boiler when the other pieces are ready. 
If some piece is still soiled after the rubbing, soap the 
soiled places again before putting it into the boiler. 



WASHING AND IRONING 323 

As soon as these articles of personal use are in 
the boiler, begin to wash the other white clothes in 
clean suds. Rub and wring them and put them into 
a tub of rinse water. By the time these are fin- 
ished, the clothes can be turned out of the boiler into 
the tub just emptied, and the white things in the 
rinse tub put into the boiler for their boiling. 

Rinse the boiled clothes, preferably twice, then 
prepare the bluing, put unstarched articles through it 
and lay them in the basket for hanging out. Articles 
to be starched must be left in the second rinse water 
until the starch is ready, because no clothes may 
safely lie in bluing. After being washed, rinsed, 
or blued, clothes must be well wrung, otherwise 
they will be a means of passing soapy water from one 
tub to another and will never be thoroughly rinsed. 

Intervals must be found between some of these 
performances for hanging out unstarched articles 
and for making the starch for the others. 

When the first boilerful of clothes are hung out 
or waiting to be blued, empty the second boilerful 
into the tub. Rinse as the others and when they 
are ready, blue and starch these and all that have 
been waiting. Put articles, or parts of articles, 
which are to be very stiff in the starch first. See 
that they are well wrung and shaken out beforehand 



324 HOUSEKEEPING 

and well squeezed out afterward. Dilute the starch 
a little for the pieces which are to be less stiff. If 
napery is to be slightly stiffened, put it into a tub with 
clean water and two or three large spoonfuls of 
the starch. 

When the white clothes have been hung out, wash 
the coloured things in clean suds. They are neither 
soaked, boiled, nor blued, and they should not lie 
in the wash or rinse water. Wash, rinse twice, and 
hang out at once in a shady place unless they must 
first be starched. A little starch of original thick- 
ness should be saved for the coloured clothes if 
any of them must be very stiff. Dark cambrics are 
better stiffened with gum-arabic dissolved in water, 
for they are apt to be streaked by starch. Stockings, 
unless woollen, are washed with the coloured articles. 
Colour can sometimes be set in wash material by 
soaking it in salt and water. 

W^oollens are neither soaked, boiled, blued nor 
starched, nor should they ever be put into water in 
which any thing else has been washed or rinsed. 
The wash water and the rinse water for them should 
be of the same temperature and should feel neither 
warm nor cold to the hand. Wash them in suds 
made with good, white soap, and wash the white 
ones first. Shake them well before hanging them 



WASHING AND IRONING 325 

on the line and shake them every now and then 
while they are there. Do not rub woollen articles 
with soap, nor wring them with your hands or a 
wringer, nor hang them in hot sunshine or close 
to a fire. Knitted articles must not be ironed, but 
flannels, after they have dried, may be pressed with 
a very moderately heated iron. 

Silk clothes should be washed and rinsed in tepid 
water and ironed with a good iron while they are 
still wet. 

It will be found convenient to hang clothes of the 
same kind together on the lines. One of the reasons 
for this is that when they are taken down they 
are already sorted for sprinkling. Sprinkling is 
done the night before the ironing day, or early in the 
morning of that day. If the weather is very warm, 
or there is no cool place in which to keep the dampened 
clothes, it is better to sprinkle them in the morning, 
as during the night they may turn sour. 

Spread a clean dish towel or cloth on a table, 
lay the pieces on it one on top of the other and 
sprinkle water over each with your hand or a clean 
whisk. In winter it is well to use warm water for 
this. Fold large pieces into a manageable size. 
Do not put white and coloured clothes together, 
nor yet starched and unstarched articles. 



326 HOUSEKEEPING 

When all the pieces of one kind are sprinkled, 
or enough of several kinds for a roll, roll them tightly, 
turning in the sides as one does the paper round a 
package. Thin pieces require less sprinkling than 
thick ones, and folded pieces need sprinkling on 
both sides, but directions of this kind are of little 
avail, for only experiment can show you how wet 
to make each piece. If clothes are not well dam- 
pened they cannot be made smooth with the iron, 
yet they must not be so wet that they cool the irons 
and require an exceptional amount of pressing. 

As the rolls are made, lay them in the clothes 
basket. When they are all finished put a cover over 
them, lest the outermost pieces dry before the time 
comes for them to be ironed. 

Time and strength are wasted in attempts to use 
cool irons, therefore allow them time to get thor- 
oughly heated before you begin to iron. Set up the 
board in a place where it will not be in a draught, 
as this quickly cools the irons. Place the iron-stand 
at the right-hand end of the board, and with it a 
paper, a cloth and a piece of beeswax. Under the 
board spread a clean cloth, that when long pieces are 
being ironed they may rest on the cloth instead of 
on the floor. 

The order in which ironing is done ie a matter 



WASHING AND IRONING 327 

01 preference. Some women say, do the heaviest 
and most difficult pieces first. Others prefer to alter- 
nate the hard and easy ones. Women who do their 
housework without assistance usually make a roll 
of little unimportant things which they iron in the 
intervals of getting luncheon or of other necessary 
work. 

Large articles like tablecloths and sheets are 
folded down the middle and first ironed on one side, 
then on the other. They must be folded evenly and 
perfectly straight. Things like pillow cases, which 
cannot be slipped over the board, are also ironed 
double and on both sides. Fine pieces, such as table- 
cloths and shirtwaists, should be ironed until entirely 
dry. On the contrary, the pieces known as flat- 
work — sheets, towels, etc. — may be ironed, carefully 
folded, and allowed to dry on the clothes horse. 

The object of ironing is to make things smooth 
and the shape they are intended to be. By keep- 
ing this in mind, and taking pains to accomplish it, 
one can soon teach oneself to iron acceptably. 

3. SPECIAL WASHING 

The time and care required for washing some 
articles is so much more than can well be given 



328 HOUSEKEEPING 

them in the regular wash, that it is better not to 
attempt to do them on the wash day. Such articles 
are blankets, curtains, embroideries, lace, chamois 
gloves or any very delicate fabrics. 

Blankets are successfully washed by the method 
given previously for woollens, though the water 
used may be warm if preferred. In that case, the 
rinsing water must be equally warm. In washing 
both wool and silk it is very necessary not to change 
their temperature. 

If curtains are torn or stained, they must be 
mended, and must have the stains removed before 
they are washed. Put them in good, hot suds and 
do not rub them or wring them, or lift them heavy 
with water, but instead, pat them and knead them 
gently with your hands for a good while, then press 
as much water out of them as possible and throw them 
into rinse water. Rinse again and again until they 
do not discolour clean water. 

Bluing and starch are absorbed by lace and deli- 
cate fabrics to an unusual degree, therefore if you 
wish to use either for curtains, use very small quan- 
tities. 

When the washing is finished, put the curtains 
on stretchers. Set white curtains in the sun to dry, 
others in the shade. An expedient which may be 



WASHING AND IRONING 329 

employed if stretchers are not obtainable, is to 
pin the curtains to the carpet in a room which 
need not be used for two days. Cover the carpet 
with sheets, then stretch the curtains into shape 
and pin them down tightly. This is a troublesome 
method, but it produces better results than ironing. 
If curtains are washed and ironed in the way ordin- 
ary articles are done, care must be taken not to 
stretch them out of shape when they are hung on the 
clothesline. Hang them with the length of the cur- 
tain running in the same direction as the length of 
the line. 

The following is a good receipt for washing 
curtains : 

Into a pail of boiling water put one-half cup of 
kerosene, two tablespoonfuls of pearline. Stir for 
fifteen minutes. Put in the curtains, let them stand 
twenty minutes. Rinse twice in lukewarm water 
without rubbing or wringing. Rinse once in cold 
water. Blue, and starch and put on a stretcher. 

Wash embroideries in lukewarm suds made with 
white soap. Do not soap or wring them. Press 
and move them about with careful hands and only 
leave them in the water as long as is necessary. 
Rinse thoroughly and iron on the wrong side while 
still wet. Spread several thicknesses of flannel or 



330 HOUSEKEEPING 

thick folds of cotton cloth over the ironing board, 
this padding will bring the embroidery out in high 
relief. These directions apply to either silk or cotton 
embroidery with the exception that the latter, if white, 
may be soaked or hung in the sun without injury. 

If there is the slightest need, lace should be mended 
before it is washed. Precious old lace should also be 
basted on strips of muslin with a very fine needle 
and thread. 

Soak lace for a half -hour in lukewarm suds made 
with very good white soap, then press it and pat it 
and lift it up and down in the suds until you think 
it is clean. Press the water out of it between your 
hands, and rinse it several times. Then, if it is 
basted on pieces of muslin, clip the threads on the 
back of the pieces and with the utmost care separate 
lace and muslin. Pin the former out on a pillow, 
using small pins and exercising much patience. 
Every little point must be fastened down, and pins 
woven into the straight edges in the direction in 
which the edges run. Lay the pillow in the sun and 
do not remove the lace until the next day. 

If lace is to be ironed, pad the board beforehand 
in the way recommended for embroidery. Use a 
very moderate iron for the lace must slowly and 
gently be pressed into its original shape. 



WASHING AND IRONING 331 

Everybody who has read "Cranford" remembers 
with delight that lace may be whitened by soaking 
it in milk. It may also be made tan-colour by 
dipping it in coffee or tea. The latter is better 
because it leaves no odour. A weak solution of 
gum arable will stiffen lace when stiffness is desired. 
Starch is not usually satisfactory. 

"Water in which fine fabrics are washed must 
either be soft by nature, or must be made soft with 
borax. 

Chamois gloves can be washed successfully with 
cold water and good soap. Some people recom- 
mend putting a few drops of sweet oil into the water. 
Wash them until they are clean, soaping and squeez- 
ing and rubbing them. Rinse them once. Squeeze 
them out hard and then gently stretch and press each 
glove into the shape and size it was when it was new. 
Hang them up to dry, but not in the sun, or near 
a heater, or in a place where you may forget them. 
For at least three or four times while they are drying, 
they should be again gently rubbed and stretched. 
Upon the care with which this is done, depend the 
softness and shape of the gloves. When they are 
almost entirely dry, put them on your hands, then 
take them off and again gently stretch them into 
shape. 



332 HOUSEKEEPING 

Things which may not be washed in water are 
sometimes cleaned with naphtha or with some kin- 
dred fluid. I hardly think this should be done unless 
one can do it out of doors. It is extremely danger- 
ous work, not only to oneself but to the lives and 
property of other people. 

At least try other methods before such washing 
is resorted to. More things can be washed in soap 
and water, if they are washed cleverly, than is gen- 
erally realized. Articles of delicate colour and tex- 
ture can often be dry-cleaned with potato flour, pow- 
dered French chalk, or powdered magnesia. Rub 
the flour or powder gently into the fabric, and allow 
it to remain there several hours. Then shake it out 
and repeat the process. It is also a good method 
to put the article to be cleaned into a box, powder it 
all over with one of these substances and then shut 
it up for two or three days. Several times each day 
shake the box well. 

Light coloured articles, which may not be wet, 
such as walls, furniture, rugs, fur, curtains and 
worsted shawls, may sometimes be improved by 
rubbing flour and corn meal into them and then 
shaking and brushing it out again. I am told that 
white fur can be made clean if it is rubbed with 
plaster of Paris, shaken, and then rubbed with a 



WASHING AND IRONING 333 

damp cloth. I cannot vouch for plaster of Paris, but 
I can for corn meal and flour, for with it I once 
successfully cleaned a white kitten. 

4, ALLEVIATIONS 

Housewives make various arrangements by which 
the family wash may be done with less expenditure 
of time and strength on the part of the household 
than it usually requires. Some have a woman in 
to do this work; some have the clothes washed out of 
the house and sent home rough dried for ironing; 
others send the flat pieces to a laundry and have the 
others done at home; others yet send the elaborate 
pieces out and do the flat wash in the house. A some- 
what different sort of compromise can be made if the 
woman of the house realizes that light washing is 
pleasant, skilful work. She can considerably lessen 
bills for washing and ironing if she will herself do the 
handkerchiefs, napkins, doilies, stockings, and other 
small pieces. 

5. EMERGENCIES 

A word or two may well be said in regard to a 
few of the commonest diflSculties that arise in this 
work. 

A rainy or violently windy day is probably the 



334 HOUSEKEEPING 

most frequent emergency . If one has an attic or a 
cellar, temporary lines can be put up in either or both; 
if one has not, there may be room for a line or two 
in the kitchen and the clothes horse must help out. 
If there is no place where clothes can be hung in the 
house, either put the washing off, or get all the white 
clothes to the stage of the second rinsing, then put 
them into the tubs with clean water and leave them 
till the storm is over. The coloured things must 
wait, the woollens also, unless there are so few that 
they can be washed and hung up in a bedroom, 
or some equally unusual place. 

There is not much that can be done when the 
wash water is muddy. Fill as many receptacles 
with it as possible, the night before the washing day 
and in the morning pour the water off, disturbing the 
settlings as little as possible. Its muddy colour 
will remain unchanged, but it will contain less actual 
mud. 

If one makes the mistake of getting clothes too 
blue, it will save time eventually to rinse and dry 
them again. For several washings are sometimes 
not sufficient to remove colour which has been ironed 
in. 

In freezing weather, it is a good plan to have a 
short length of line on which small pieces can be 



WASHING AND IRONING 335 

pinned in the house. Line and clothes may then be 
carried out and put up at the same time, and can be 
brought in together when the pieces are dry. 

Clothes frozen to the lines are easily torn unless 
they are carefully removed. Therefore wrap up 
well before going out to do this work, that you may 
not be in a hurry. Also put on heavy gloves or 
mittens and crush the frozen corners of the clothes 
hard in your hand before trying to detach them from 
the line. 

A scorch will sometimes disappear if it is sponged 
gently with a wet cloth. To hang the scorched 
garment in strong sunshine is also a good remedy. 
Dip a serious scorch in soapsuds or borax and water 
before hanging it in the sun, if, however, the tex- 
ture of the material is injured, the misfortune can 
only be remedied with a darn or a patch. 

Sometimes starch will stick and coat the irons. 
In such a case, it is an assistance to sponge the 
starched pieces all over lightly with cold water and 
a clean cloth, and to scrape the irons thoroughly and 
rub them with beeswax. If, after this, the starch 
is still unmanageable, rinse the clothes in clear water, 
and if they are then too limp stiffen them with cold 
starch. This really takes no more time and strength 
than struggling to iron sticky clothes; it also pre- 



336 HOUSEKEEPING 

vents garments from being torn, which is an invariable 
part of the vexation and anxiety occasioned by 
starch which sticks. 

A sentence containing two words like vexation and 
anxiety may not be allowed to end a chapter. I 
will put here, instead, that well-worn reproach of 
housework, that it is ephemeral — work done merely 
to meet passing necessities. For this reproach is a 
great source of contentment in the work. Most 
thankfully I can remind myself that things over 
which I could cry with weariness to-night will not 
exist to-morrow; most thankfully I realize that this 
day's work is only one of hundreds like it, and in 
all those days, even I can learn to do the work 
acceptably. 



XIV 

HOUSE CLEANING 

JOKES about house cleaning have somewhat 
decreased in number, which makes one 
hopeful that the miseries of house clean- 
ing have also decreased. Certainly there has been 
an earnest effort on the part of many house- 
keepers to make the performance an inconspicuous 
piece of work instead of an orgy. 

House cleaning is of two classes: that which is 
done when the house is continuously occupied, and 
that which is done when a house is opened or closed 
after a season of absence or of occupation. 

For either class, a careful preparation removes 
half the difficulties and for both ample time should 
be allowed. 

One should especially beware while house cleaning 
of what Bishop Hall calls the "lust of finishing." 
Try to clean only as much each day as can be put 
back into habitable order by the time the men of 
the household come home. One room a day is all 
a woman unaided should try to do. Mankind are 

337 



338 HOUSEKEEPING 

pleased to make jokes about house cleaning and glad 
am I that they can take it that way, for really it is 
a trial of character to come home tired and hungry 
and find the house cold, the rooms in disorder and 
a picnic supper spread in the kitchen by an over- 
wrought wife. 

Preparation for either class of house cleaning 
includes, for one thing, a decision as to what renewals 
and repairs are to be made. Painting, papering, 
floor renovation, carpet and wall cleaning, uphol- 
stering and whitewashing are all matters to be de- 
cided before the cleaning begins, that they may not 
conflict, and that those which make dirt and litter 
may be done before the actual cleaning of the rooms. 

Another sort of preparation is the cleaning of 
cupboards, closets, desks, bureau drawers, book- 
cases — everything which can be tightly closed or 
covered. A little time devoted to this work every 
day for several weeks helps to make brief the period 
of necessary disorder. A day or two before a room 
is cleaned, ornaments and pictures can be taken 
down, cleaned and put away until their places are 
ready for them again. One must of course be careful 
not to remove comforts or conveniences. 

House cleaning is merely an especially thorough 
and complete periodical cleaning, such as has been 



HOUSE CLEANING 339 

described in Chapter Six, to which are added certain 
works of renovation and the packing and unpacking 
of possessions which are used only during a part of 
the year. 

Renovations. — Renovations which are made by 
professionals merely require of the housekeeper that 
she appoint a time for the workers to come, that she 
see that they do come and that they do their work 
well. 

It may happen, however, that the housewife 
wishes or is compelled to make some renovations 
herself, and though there is no way to find out 
how to do the work except by doing it, yet a few 
suggestions may help. 

Whitewashing. — The cleaning of the cellar 
usually involves whitewashing. Perhaps you think 
anybody can whitewash. Truly, anybody can, but 
often it's himself he whitewashes instead of the 
cellar. 

The amount of lime which can be bought in most 
places for ten cents will make four or five pails of 
whitewash. A friend of mine said, when I asked 
her how much lime she bought for whitewashing her 
cellar, "Oh, two lumps about as big as my head." 
When I asked, "Head with puffs or without.'^" 
She changed it to, "about half a bucketful." 



340 HOUSEKEEPING 

A firkin or a large pail which does not leak and 
which can be devoted to the purpose is needed for 
slacking the lime. Put in the lumps, then pour 
half a pail of water on them, carefully because you 
do not want to splash your surroundings with lime 
nor burn yourself. Do not be alarmed at the commo- 
tion you thus unwittingly create; when the lime has 
thumped and hissed and gurgled a few minutes, put 
on another half-pailful of water. When the lime 
gets more quiet, add water enough to fill the keg, 
and stir until it is smooth, then cover to keep out dust 
and leave it until it is cool. 

When you look at it again it will probably be 
smooth and thick like sour cream. If there is water 
on the top stir it in. Then dip out some of the lime 
into a pail and dilute it with water until it is like 
good milk. Stir it thoroughly. 

Surfaces which are to be whitewashed should be 
well brushed to remove dust and loose flakes of old 
whitewash. Apply whitewash with a broad brush 
and do not put it on very thick. It will look gray 
and unpleasant until dry. 

The whitewasher should prepare herself carefully 
for the work. Lime is injurious to clothes, shoes 
and skin. Wear old shoes and clothes which can be 
washed, and protect your head and hands. Pro- 



HOUSE CLEANING 341 

fesslonal whitewashers usually appear in hats or 
sunbonnets; it is not a badge of their profession, 
but a means of protecting their eyes when they 
whitewash above their heads. Protection for hands 
is even more necessary, a day's work without pro- 
tection means hands too sore to use for anything. 
One might think that rubber gloves would be per- 
fect for this purpose, but in a few hours the lime eats 
through the rubber. Old rags which one can tie 
round one's hands and replace with others when 
they get wet are I believe the most effectual protec- 
tion. 

Lime once slacked can be kept from one white- 
washing to another and from year to year merely 
by keeping it always wet. It should also be kept 
covered, for dust discolours it. 

Painting. — Surfaces which are to be painted 
should first be made clean, dry and smooth. Sweep 
and wipe walls and ceilings, scrub woodwork with 
soap and water, remove stains and grease spots, 
sandpaper rough places and fill dints, cracks and 
scratches: those in the walls with plaster of Paris, 
those in the woodwork with putty. When wood- 
work receives two coats of paint, the putty should 
be applied after the first coat has dried. 

Surfaces which have not before been painted 



342 HOUSEKEEPING 

always require two coats of paint. The first must 
be thoroughly dry before another is applied. 

Amateurs succeed better if they use already mixed 
paints, rather than those of their own mixing. If 
after it has been long and well stirred paint is thicker 
than light cream, it should be thinned with turpen- 
tine. Because in thick paint the places where the 
strokes of the brush began and ended are apt to 
show; likewise, because thickly painted surfaces are 
easily scarred. 

Paint with long, light strokes; it is a motion like 
waving a flag, not like scrubbing. 

For wide surfaces, like walls or ceilings, use a 
fairly wide brush to save time; for narrow places like 
door and window casings use a small brush. Soak 
new brushes in water, and keep all brushes in water 
during intervals when they are not in use. A 
brush which has dried with paint in it will soften 
if it is soaked in turpentine. 

Floors and Carpets. — Methods for refinishing 
hardwood floors were given in Chapter Six. 

The directions for beating rugs given in the same 
chapter apply equally to the cleaning of carpets. 

Papering. — It is not always safe to copy pro- 
fessionals in the matter of putting on wall paper. " 
They do many things which the unskilled cannot. 



HOUSE CLEANING 343 

Nevertheless, the first thing to do in this work is to 
examine the paper already on the walls. Count 
the full-length strips, then count the short strips 
and calculate how many full-length strips they 
amount to. 

As a double roll of wall paper is usually 16 yards 
long, the number of strips a roll will cut can be found 
by dividing 16 yards by the length of one strip. 
The length of a strip is obtained by measuring the 
height of the room from the top of the base-board 
to the ceiling. Be sure to divide 16 yards by the 
length of one strip in yards, or else to divide its equiv- 
alent, 48 feet, by the length of one strip in feet. 

If a room is not already papered the number 
of full length strips may be found by measuring the 
distance round the room, exclusive of the distance 
across doors and windows, and dividing it by the 
width of the paper. One must then measure spaces 
too short or too narrow for whole strips and as 
before calculate how many full-length strips they 
amount to. 

When the number of full-length strips required 
for a room has been obtained by either of the fore- 
going methods, the number of rolls required may 
be obtained by dividing the number of strips needed 
by the number of strips a roll will cut. It is always 



344 HOUSEKEEPING 

wiser to get one roll more than the number thus 
obtained; this allows for the waste in matching and 
for strips which may be spoiled in the putting up. 

When the old paper has been examined remove 
it. Brush it over with hot water and peel it off. 
Sweep the walls and fill cracks and holes with plaster 
of Paris wet with water. 

Cut the margin from one side of each roll of 
paper, from the same side in every case. Usually 
the margin is wider on one side than on the other, 
which helps one to remember which side to cut. 
Paper hangers cut off both margins but it is better 
not to do this until one has acquired some skill in 
paper hanging. As you unroll the paper to trim 
off the margin, also roll up again the part which 
has been trimmed. 

On a pasting board or on the floor run out enough 
paper, face up, from a trimmed roll to make a full- 
length strip. Make a fold in the paper at the length 
required and cut it with scissors or a sharp knife. 
Lay something across the ends to keep the strip 
from rolling up. Again run out paper from the 
roll about the length of the strip but this time 
lay it with the trimmed edge on the untrimmed 
edge of the strip and if necessary draw it up to make 
the pattern match. Cut off the few inches which 



HOUSE CLEANING 345 

have to be drawn beyond the strip to make the 
match, then cut a strip from the roll the length of 
the first strip. Continue to do this again and again 
until there are as many strips as you need. Then 
turn them all face down. 

Paste each strip with quick long strokes, using a 
wide paint brush or whitewash brush. Fold the 
lower end lightly toward the middle, far enough to 
keep it from touching the floor when you raise the 
strip by the upper corners. Place these corners 
against the wall where they belong and press the 
upper part of the strip against the wall, then brush 
it lightly downward with a clean brush, unfolding 
the lower part when you come to it. 

Put up all the full-length strips first, beginning 
beside a door or a window frame where you will 
have a straight edge for a guide. Put the trimmed 
edge of the first strip next the woodwork, lap the 
trimmed edge of the next strip over the margin of 
the first, and so on. If the distance between the 
last strip put up and the corner of the room is not 
sufiicient for the width of the strip, either leave that 
space and put the next strip on the next wall with 
the trimmed edge close in the corner, or else cut the 
strip lengthwise and put it up with the cut edges 
meeting in the corner. When all the full-length 



346 HOUSEKEEPING 

strips are up, cover spaces which are too short 
or too narrow for a whole strip with pieces cut for 
the purpose from the strips left. 

A border is put up last and must be done by two 
or three people, or else cut into lengths short enough 
for one to handle. 

Good paste is made as follows : — Into an 
enamelled or new tin saucepan put four quarts of 
water and bring it to the boiling point. Mix a cup 
of flour with cold water as if for thickening gravy; 
beat it smooth. Pour it into the boiling water, 
stirring all the time until the mixture is thick as 
cream and has boiled a little. Remove from the 
stove, and if there is any likelihood that the paste 
will be kept over night, put into it a piece of alum 
as big as a walnut. This keeps it from becoming 
sour. 

Packing. — Renovations accomplished by amateur 
effort are more apt to be associated with house 
cleaning of the first class, than with that of the second. 
Packing, on the contrary, though it has a small 
necessary part in the cleaning of a house continuously 
occupied, is a chief and important performance in 
closing a house. In fact, this latter process is little 
more than packing up a whole house. 

The suggestions concerning packing which follow 



HOUSE CLEANING 347 

are intended to be of use in closing a house but they 
amply cover the packing away which is done spring 
and fall in a house which remains open. 

Woollen articles and furs should be packed in 
receptacles which close tightly and should have some 
substance unpleasant to moths packed with them. 
It is a wise precaution to line packing boxes or trunks 
with brown paper which has been wet with turpentine, 
or with newspaper, for both are disliked by moths. 

All articles should be thoroughly brushed and 
shaken before they are packed. Many people 
disapprove of hanging them out in the sun before- 
hand, as they think this gives the moths a splendid 
chance to lay eggs in comfortable, sun-warmed fur 
and wool. 

Things soiled or half-soiled ought not to be packed 
away. Dirt injures fabrics and colours and helps 
to breed creatures. Possessions which are to remain 
packed for a long time should not be put away 
starched. Do not wrap white articles in white tissue 
paper, it turns them yellow. Beware of putting 
into packing trunks anything which gathers damp- 
ness. It may be romantic to find a dried rose laid 
away with somebody's ball dress, but a brown 
spot on the front breadth is not romantic. Pieces of 
camphor should be wrapped in paper and any other 



348 HOUSEKEEPING 

substance used to keep out moths must be sprinkled 
or laid in with discretion. Black clothes are rarely 
injured by such things, but coloured ones may be. 

Curtains, hangings, bed coverings and all textile 
furnishings, whether woollen or not, should be 
packed or folded and wrapped when a house is to 
be closed as they require protection from light and 
dust. Sofa pillows may be put into old pillow slips 
and left in their places or packed, whichever is 
more convenient. Mattresses and bed pillows should 
be covered with old sheets or dusting sheets. 

Some people have their carpets and large rugs taken 
up, cleaned and stored by the cleaners or brought 
back to the house and left rolled until needed again. 
Such rolls should have paper tied over the ends and 
should be separated from each other. Sometimes 
carpets are left on the floor and covered with crash 
while the house is closed; the crash protects them 
from dust and from being faded. Fabric-covered 
walls and upholstered furniture should be covered 
to protect them from the same dangers. It is con- 
venient to have a cover for each piece of furniture, 
but if several pieces are grouped together they can 
be covered with one cloth. 

Ornaments, pictures, mirrors and light fixtures 
should be wrapped in cloths or paper to keep them 



HOUSE CLEANING 349 

from dust, light and flies. Silver and valuables 
should be sent away to some reliable place for storage 
or locked in a safe. Bright objects such as andirons, 
brass curtain poles and candlesticks and their like 
are better wrapped in brown paper. Rub the 
nickel fittings in the bathrooms with the rags which 
have been used for polishing floors or furniture. 
This is good for them at any time. 

Books which are to be left in a closed house should 
be carefully dusted and shut in cases, or covered 
with sheets. A piece of gum camphor, or a few drops 
of oil of lavender put on the shelves will help to keep 
away insects, mould and mustiness. 

Leather-bound books need special care about once 
a year whether the house is open or closed. Care 
which agrees well with them is this: First wipe 
them thoroughly and aifectionately with a flannel 
cloth; then dip a small piece of flannel into a mix- 
ture of equal parts paraflSne and castor oil, and 
with it wipe all the leather parts of the bindings. 

In city houses green shades are usually put up 
in summer and light -coloured ones in winter. Any 
shade which is taken down should be tightly rolled 
to keep the spring from loosening. 

When closing a house in a place where there is 
much dust, it is well to lay pieces of paper on the 



350 HOUSEKEEPING 

window sills, just far enough over the outer edge 
to be held by the window when it is shut. These 
keep the dust which sifts in from lying on and dis- 
colouring the sills. If stoves, lengths of pipe and 
wire screens are put away for a time, it is well to 
grease them, unless the place where they are put 
is absolutely dry. Melted lard or drippings are 
good for this purpose, and also kerosene, though 
in time this completely evaporates. The nickel 
parts of stoves keep in better condition if they are 
wrapped in paper after they are greased. 

When a kitchen is to be closed for a season, 
the room and everything in it must be left clean and 
dry, otherwise there will be mould, rust and water- 
bugs to contend with when the house is opened. 
Some scouring and polishing will be saved if bright 
tin and brass utensils and fittings are wrapped in 
paper. The contents of cupboards and drawers 
should be grouped on tables and covered with paper 
or cloths, and no food kept except stores which are 
not injured by keeping. 

Inflammable liquids such as alcohol, kerosene and 
turpentine should not be left in a closed house. 
Matches should be shut in a tin box or taken away 
altogether. 

The last thing before a house is closed — gas, 



HOUSE CLEANING 351 

electricity and water must be turned off. After 
the water is turned off, empty the tanks of the closets 
as they may rust if water stands in them several 
months. Crude glycerine or some liquid which does 
not evaporate should be poured into all traps. In 
the course of months the water in traps evaporates 
and leaves the passageway for gases from the sewer 
to the house unobstructed. 

On account of this evaporation, the water should 
be run occasionally in rooms and bathrooms which are 
not in regular use, in order that the traps may 
be kept full. 

Two general rules to be followed in preparing a 
house to be closed are: mark all articles which are 
wrapped up in unrecognizable packages, and, as 
far as it is reasonable, leave things in the rooms 
in which they belong. 

Many people would add to these the rule that 
household possessions should be repaired before they 
are put away. I think, however, that this rule does 
not apply to clothing, furs, hangings, upholstery 
or any textiles. Such are improved or deteriorated 
by being packed away, and one cannot tell before- 
hand which will happen. Likewise, they are fresh- 
ened by being repaired or altered just before they 
are again used. 



352 HOUSEKEEPING 

It is true, however, that household appliances, 
and the house itself should be put in order before the 
house is closed, for possessions like plumbing, rain- 
pipes, woodwork, light fixtures, furnaces, stoves 
and shades grow worse the longer they are left 
out of repair, and sometimes injure other things. 

Opening a House. — Just before a house is to be 
opened, light and water should be turned on, all 
the contrivances connected with them examined 
and needed repairs made. It is better that this 
part of the opening should be done a day or two 
before any one returns to the house to live. 

Dust is the first thing to look after when the 
house is opened. Remove as much of it as possible 
before anything is uncovered. Then remove covers 
and put things in their places, beginning with those 
most necessary for living. After that rearrange and 
renew those which require it as soon as the time and 
needed assistance for doing so can be obtained. 

Housecleaning of any sort can hardly fail to be 
a time of turmoil and weariness for the housekeeper. 
Her help is to remember that if the family have good 
food and comfortable beds and are not scolded or 
quarrelled with, they are well enough off to wait 
several days or even weeks for curtains, clean windows 
^nd slippery floors. 



XV 

EMERGENCIES 

THIS does not pretend to be a chapter, though 
it is called so for convenience. It is merely 
a list of miscellaneous suggestions drawn 
from experience, which may be useful to others. 

It is in the very nature of emergencies that they 
cannot be forseen or prepared for. They are things 
like those encountered by the knight-errant as he 
rode through the unknown forest — things which are 
never twice the same and which must be met and 
dealt with, without forethought or consideration. 
And they are most successfully dealt with in an 
adventurous spirit, as things to call out one's courage 
and address, and put them to the proof. 

I know that is a diflScult spirit to attain. Mistakes 
and failures and the remarks which families feel 
themselves at liberty to make about such things 
are disheartening and painful. "The funny side'* 
is the best defense always against one's own distress 
and the thoughtlessness of other people. I have 
found that a person who sees the funny side of a 

353 



854 HOUSEKEEPING 

calamity or of a difficulty gives more help in house- 
keeping than any one else. Happy the home which 
contains such a person, thrice happy one in which 
that person is its mistress. 

A woman who is inclined to take household failures 
and accidents too seriously may comfort herself 
with the thought that what she fails to do to-day, 
she will probably succeed in to-morrow; and also 
with the reflection that an occasional uncomfortable 
accident is good for her family. A few spoonfuls of 
scorched soup eaten for courtesy's sake is valuable 
food. Likewise, household accidents can be used 
to plant in the family mind that calamities are to be 
shared by all. It is not merely a reproach to the 
housekeeper that the family maid does not set the 
table correctly, or that the family potatoes are burned. 

Probably if a husband remarks, "Your gravy 
is cold," it is just as well for his wife to reply delight- 
edly, "No colder than your beans." 

Not awfully clever perhaps, but better than hurt 
feelings. 

1. COOKING EMERGENCIES 

Stale bread or cake can be freshened by plunging 
it into cold water and then setting it in the oven 
for a few minutes. It must be used at once. 



EMERGENCIES 355 

Pieces of stale bread may be thoroughly dried in 
the oven, then put through the meat chopper and 
kept in a glass jar for covering croquettes, fried 
oysters, etc. 

Pieces of meat which in appearance and quantity 
will not be suitable for a meal may often be used 
by arranging some vegetable on the same dish. 
The pieces can be warmed in gravy and wreathed 
with carrots or peas. Or they can be put through 
the grinder, packed into a mould lined with boiled rice 
and the whole heated. Or they can be chopped, put 
into ramakins, covered with potato crust and slightly 
browned. These are merely samples of the many 
ways in which vegetables can be made to conceal the 
fact that there is not meat enough for a main dish. 

Left-over breakfast food of any of the cooked 
varieties can be made into delicate little cakes 
which will make up for the lack of a vegetable or do 
for a luncheon dessert. If there are about two 
cupfuls or less, mix with one egg and a saltspoonful 
of salt. Fry in very hot grease using about a dessert- 
spoonful of batter for each cake. They will 
sputter and be hard to turn, but that merely indicates 
their good qualities. 

If thickening remains lumpy instead of stirring 
smooth, strain it through a fine wire strainer. 



356 HOUSEKEEPING 

Curdled mayonnaise need not be wasted. If a 
new dressing is begun and stirred until it begins to 
thicken, the curdled dressing may then be stirred 
in as if it were oil. 

Cream tomato soup can be kept from curdling 
if a bit of soda not larger than a pea is stirred into the 
milk. This holds good for any cream soup or for 
milk which is to be boiled. 

A piece of soda not larger than a pea boiled with 
vegetables will keep them green. 

Boil this same quantity of soda with old, tough 
vegetables and they will soften. 

It makes less odour through the house, and makes 
the vegetables themselves less strong, if cabbage, 
cauliflower, onions and some kinds of beans are 
drained two or three times while boiling, and covered 
again with fresh hot water. It is better not to 
put a cover over such things. 

If potatoes baked in the meat pan will not brown, 
they can be browned in a frying pan on top of the 
stove. 

When water has boiled off vegetables and they are 
burning, remove the pot from the stove and turn the 
contents quickly and lightly into another pot. Let 
everything which is inclined to stick, stick. Put 
hot water on the vegetables and return them to the 



EMERGENCIES 357 

stove if they need more cooking. Put water and a 
tablespoonful of baking soda into the burnt pot. 

Yolks of eggs, also lemons, will keep longer if 
laid in cold water. 

Pieces of charcoal wrapped in bits of cheese cloth 
and laid with meat or tucked inside poultry help 
to keep either sweet. 

If the cook must be a long while absent from the 
kitchen while fowls are roasting, strips of bacon 
pinned across their breasts and legs will baste the 
fowls for her. 

If the fire is too hot for broiling, or if for any 
reason the broiler may not be used, heat the frying 
pan hot without greasing it. Lay the meat in the 
pan first on one side then on the other. The result 
is much like broiling, some people even prefer 
this method. 

2. SOME SUBSTITUTES FOR ARTICLES CALLED FOR 
BY RECEIPTS 

For milk. — Water, or milk and water, may be 
used in either cake or bread when receipts say milk 
with little variation in result except that bread and 
cake thus made dry more quickly. 

Sour milk may be used in mixtures which require 



358 HOUSEKEEPING 

sweet if just enough soda is put into it to make it 
sweet, and the baking powder is measured grudgingly. 

Sweet milk may be used when a receipt calls for 
sour if lemon juice is stirred into it until the milk 
thickens. 

For celery in salad. — Use tender cabbage and 
celery seed. Or use endive. 

For chicken. — Excellent substitutes for chicken 
croquettes and chicken salad can be made of veal 
or of young pork. 

For cream. — Use milk and double the quantity 
of butter. 

For butter. — In cake, use half butter, half lard 
and a pinch of salt. 

In cookies, one may risk using three-quarters 
lard, if the lard is very good and the available butter 
very poor. In less delicate cookery lard, sweet 
drippings or chicken oil may be used. Before using 
any of these substitutes salt them a little. 

3. STAINS AND SPOTS 

Fruit and wine stains. — If fruit juice or wine is 
spilled at table, cover the spot with salt. The salt 
lessens the stain, saves the appearance of the table, and 
diverts attention from the culprit who did the spilling. 



EMERGENCIES 359 

Boiling water poured through fruit or wine stains 
will usually remove them entirely. If it does not, 
try a weak solution of oxalic acid. 

Coffee and tea. — Pour boiling water through the 
stains until they disappear. 

Ink and iron rust. — Cover a spot of either ink or 
iron rust with salt wet with lemon juice and lay it in 
the sun. Repeat until the spot disappears. 

Or, use salts of lemon and sunshine in the same way. 

Or, if the material stained is white linen or cotton 
try chlorinated soda. 

Sometimes ripe tomato will remove ink stains. 

Sometimes soaking them in milk will take them out. 
. Often an ink-eradicator such as is sold to remove 
writing from paper will take ink spots out of white 
material. 

Paint. — Turpentine will remove paint from fab- 
rics, also from glass or iron. 

Mildew and grass stains. — Try lemon, salt and 
sun applied as for iron rust. 

Try diluted oxalic acid. 

If the material stained is white, try boiling it in 
buttermilk. 

Try alcohol for grass stains. 

Or rub them with molasses and then thoroughly 
wash the fabric. 



360 HOUSEKEEPING 

Grease spots. — If the article may be washed, try 
washing it with cold water and white soap. 

Or, moisten it with a strong solution of household 
ammonia and water, cover with blotting paper and 
iron dry. 

Or, sponge with a mixture of four parts alcohol 
to one part salt. 

Powdered French chalk will often remove grease 
spots from silk or woollen materials. 

Tar, carriage grease or machine-oil may usually be 
removed by rubbing the material with lard and then 
thoroughly washing it with soap and water. 

Spots of candle grease will disappear if they are 
covered with blotting paper or coarse fibred brown 
paper and ironed with a hot iron. 

Kerosene. — Kerosene spilled on books, rugs or 
furniture will quickly disappear if they are held near 
a hot fire or a gas jet. Not nearer than your hand 
can bear. Sometimes if the article is left in strong 
sunshine all day, the spots will disappear. 

Blood stains. — Wash first with clear cold water. 

If the stain is obstinate wet with kerosene, then 
wash in warm suds. 

Stained hands. — They are improved by the applica- 
tion of any of the following: vinegar, lemon juice, 
pumice, ripe tomatoes or dishwater. 



EMERGENCIES 361 

Note. — Colour taken out by an acid can usually 
be restored with an alkali. Colour taken out with 
an alkali can usually be restored with an acid. 

4. ANNOYING CREATUBES 

Ants. — Powdered borax sprinkled on shelves and 
along baseboards and door sills will keep ants away. 

Ants will not walk over broad, thick chalk lines. 
Such lines drawn round boxes and jars some distance 
above the shelf or floor on which they stand will 
protect them from ants. 

Ants and other crawling insects may be kept out 
of a cupboard which stands on legs, if its legs are 
set in bowls or cans of water. 

To wash cupboards and shelves with a strong 
solution of alum and water (1 lb. to 2 qts.) is a pro- 
tection against any kind of insect. 

Mice. — An excellent defense against mice is a 
velvet-footed, self-possessed. Epicurean Philosopher 
in the shape of a cat. 

Traps are good if one may not have a cat. 

Seek diligently for holes large enough to admit 
mice and have them stopped. If you discover one 
unexpectedly and have nothing else at hand, thrust 
a piece of yellow soap into the hole. I have not 



362 HOUSEKEEPING 

yet found among mice the counterpart of the gentle- 
man who cleaned his teeth with yellow soap for the 
sake of self-discipline. 

Poison is a poor expedient for ridding the house 
of mice. Whatever may be said in the advertise- 
ments, poisoned rats and mice frequently die in the 
walls or in the cellar and make life miserable in the 
neighbourhood. 

It is with reluctance that I suggest attacks upon 
mice. I must hasten to finish them, for a little later 
in the evening a tiny, palpitating, silken, gray ball 
with bright eyes will come and sit on my desk and 
eat crumbs. What if he should sit down on this 
page and see what my housewifely conscience compels 
me to write, but not always to act upon! 

Moths. — Gum-camphor, tar-camphor, turpentine, 
pepper, a large collection of patent substances, 
extreme cold and extreme heat are all objectionable 
to moths. 

Ways of packing articles to protect them from 
moths have been given in the chapter on house 
cleaning. 

Careful sweeping and dusting, and frequent airing 
of clothing and hangings are excellent and natural 
preventatives of moths. 

Water-bugs and cockroaches. — Keep places where 



EMERGENCIES 363 

they congregate dry and clean. Practically all the 
well-known roach foods and roach salts effectually 
prevent these creatures, but none are effectual in 
places which are allowed to be dirty or damp. 

Bedbugs. — If a housewife has ever had the least 
trouble with these creatures there is one warning 
to take to heart and constantly obey: Watch! Com- 
plete extermination is extremely difficult. Some- 
times after two or three years of absence they appear 
again. Besides there is always danger that they 
may be brought into the house from a street car 
or a laundry or some such place. 

If one finds a few of these creatures, apply creosote, 
or corrosive sublimate, or some patent poison to the 
bed or cracks where they were found. Apply the 
poison with a feather or a squirt. Be sure to mark 
the bottles containing it with the word '^''Poison" 
and keep them where they will not easily be found by 
others than the housewife. 

If one makes the horrifying discovery that a room 
is really infested with these creatures, then indeed 
one must fight hard and unceasingly. Paint and 
varnish are a great help in such cases. If the room 
is papered, remove the paper, fill every crack first 
with poison, then with plaster of Paris. Paint 
or calcimine the walls instead of papering them again. 



364 HOUSEKEEPING 

Fill every crack in the woodwork with putty, have 
a moulding put over the place where the baseboards 
meet the floor, and paint or varnish all the woodwork 
so thick that there are no cracks. Wash the bed and 
the furniture in the room and varnish all their under- 
neath and unfinished parts. Then, every day when 
the room is put in order, seek these flat, brown 
creatures everywhere. 

5. BURNS AND STINGS 

Keep in the kitchen a few soft, old white rags for 
wrapping burns, cuts, bruises and other injuries. 
Keep also for these hurts a bottle containing two 
teaspoonfuls of borax dissolved in one quart of 
water; or two ounces boracic acid dissolved in one 
quart of water. Either of these mixtures is healing, 
soothing and antiseptic. Always wrap burns; air 
aggravates them. Keep them wet with one of 
these solutions and the pain will soon be allayed. 
Wrap burned fingers separately, or they will stick 
together. 

An excellent remedy for scalds is always at hand in 
the kitchen — the flour dredger. Cover the scalded 
place thick with flour and keep it covered. 

Stings and bites of insects should be kept wet 



EMERGENCIES 365 

with ammonia for ten or fifteen minutes, or covered 
with baking soda wet with water. Clean mud from a 
garden bed or a flowerpot is also excellent for them. 

j 6. SERVING OF MEALS FOB THE SICK 

Meals for people who are in bed are an emer- 
gency of housekeeping. In their preparation, econ- 
omy should not be exercised unless it is grievously 
necessary. Sick people are easily annoyed and often 
have no appetite ; sometimes they have even a disgust 
for food. The necessity then is that their food 
should be the best, the freshest, the most inviting 
and the most carefully cooked. 

It is also important that food should be really hot 
or really cold when it is intended to be. Coffee or 
tea served in a little pot or in a covered pitcher rather 
than in a cup will be hotter and not spilled over into 
the saucer. Plates and cups which are to contain 
hot food should be heated very hot, they will be cool 
enough for use by the time they have been carried 
upstairs. If the tray must be carried any distance 
cover hot food with heated plates and bowls. For 
butter or ice cream or any food which must be 
cold to look or taste agreeable, chill the plate 
on which it is to be served and cover it with a 



366 HOUSEKEEPING 

chilled bowi or plate. In hot weather put the 
butter on a little lettuce leaf, or lay a tiny piece of 
ice beside it. 

The appearance of an invalid's tray is often the 
cause of appetite or of the lack of it. The linen 
should always be perfectly fresh, the food in small 
quantities and daintily arranged. The dishes may 
well be the daintiest and prettiest in the house, and 
should be small enough for easy use. A flower or a 
geranium leaf is a pleasant addition to the tray. 

Before bringing a meal to an invalid, go and see 
that she is comfortable. If one has not an invalid's 
table, it is well to put a pile of books or boxes on 
each side of the sick person on which the ends of 
the tray can rest. It takes strength and nerve to 
balance something on one's lap when half lying down. 

7. GUESTS 

Including guests in the "chapter on emergencies 
is not intended as a discourtesy. They owe the 
classification to the fact that they are sometimes 
unexpected and always need a little special thought 
and care, however simply they are received. 

It does not seem to me that the people who make 
no preparations whatever for guests are any more 



EMERGENCIES 367 

in the right than those who make themselves sick- 
in-bed getting ready for them. 

It is not necessary to sweep the whole house, 
clean the attic and whitewash the cellar in prepara- 
tion for a guest, but it does seem that a room should 
be carefully made ready for them and that more 
space should be cleared for their possessions than 
two hooks in the closet and perhaps a bureau drawer. 

Certain things which it is pleasant to have in a 
guest room are in the following list : 

An empty closet and empty drawers . 

Drinking water, at night, because a guest cannot 
wander round at night seeking what he needs. 

A candle and matches close to the bed, because 
something may happen to the lighting arrangements, 
or the guest may forget where they are. 

A wash cloth, a piece of soap, a brush and comb, 
pins and a whisk broom, because these things are 
easily and frequently forgotten by a traveller. 

A wrapper, a pair of bedroom slippers, and a 
Bible. These three are especially for transient 
guests as they are apt to be heavy and large to carry 
in a travelling bag. 

If the guest-room bed is very daintily covered, 
it is well to have a place, other than the bed, where 
a guest may lie down. 



368 HOUSEKEEPING 

The bed should be opened at night because a 
stranger often feels a helpless ignorance of the intri- 
cacies of shams and counterpanes and unaccustomed 
methods of bed making. 

The degree of preparation made for meals offered 
to guests should be governed by the occasion. When 
people are formally invited into your home for a 
meal, it is natural that special preparations should 
be made for them, and quite right, provided the re- 
past does do not exceed what you can afford or serve 
without evident anxiety. Unexpected guests and 
guests who stay a few days or more ought to be 
taken into the regular life of the family, with only 
such departures from the usual order as the use of 
finer linen, or flowers on the table, or the preparation 
of some dish which the guest is known to care for. 

There are several small reasons why it is not wise 
to make a sudden change in the family ways for the 
sake of impressing a guest. One is that some can- 
did member of the family is sure to speak of the 
change or betray it by awkwardness; another is 
that the guest is sure to find out the alteration by 
this means or some other; and another is that "com- 
pany manners" and "company menus" produce an 
awful restraint which even a cordial family and a 
genial guest cannot break through. 



EMERGENCIES 369 

Then there are two large reasons for not trying 
to impress a guest; it is artificial and untrue, 
and it kills natural, simple hospitality. If enter- 
taining is made a great trouble and expense, many 
people cannot do it. And this is a real misfortune 
because the reception of guests is a necessary part 
of family life. It is a pleasure, it brings new knowl- 
edge and new experience, it is an opportunity for 
kindliness, it diverts people's minds from themselves 
and besides, it is a sacred duty. 

A good many times I have seen trouble in a 
family or in a school completely done away by the 
coming of an interesting guest. Probably every 
one knows instances when a guest has brought a great 
happiness or a great blessing. For there is much 
truth as well as loveliness in those old tales of angels 
entertained unawares, of the weary stranger sheltered 
who proves to be the king, and of travellers lodged 
for a night who departing leave exhaustless gifts. 



XVI 

SERVANTS 

WHATEVER is said within the next few 
years of the situation known as "the serv- 
ant question" must be in the form of a 
theory or of an opinion. For the question is still 
unanswered, the problem unsolved. 

There are two things which each woman can do 
toward solving this problem; one is to find out all 
she can about it in general, and the other is to deal 
as wisely and calmly as she may with the particular 
servant or servants in her care. 

One of the most obvious things about the situa- 
tion is that there is something very much the matter. 
Listen for only a few minutes to a group of women 
talking about their servants and you will hear a most 
disheartening list of complaints. Discount this list 
somewhat on the grounds that people are inclined 
to magnify their troubles, and then consider how 
it compares with the complaints made of the *' hands" 
in a factory or in a mill. There will be many points 
of likeness and identity, but in such a comparison 

370 



SERVANTS 371 

one serious difference between the problem of domes- 
tic service and other labour problems cannot fail 
to become apparent. This difference is that each 
domestic servant comes into individual and personal 
relation with her employer and lives in her employer's 
home, distinctly affecting with her disposition and 
behaviour the family life. 

One can vividly realize the peculiar troubles which 
can arise from this situation by picturing the anxi- 
eties and annoyances that the superintendent of a 
mill or a factory would suffer if he were suddenly 
required to become the head of a lodging house for 
his employees. 

Our situation is not quite so serious in regard to 
numbers as his would be, but, none the less, we have 
constantly to take into our homes women who differ 
from ourselves in nationality, class, education, 
personal habits, tastes, standards — in fact, in so 
many things that a daily and unavoidable relation- 
ship is most difficult and irksome. 

Nor are the trials of this relationship entirely 
borne by the mistress. Is it not a fact to be consid- 
ered deeply, not to say humbly, that girls prefer to 
work in factories and stores for poor wages and to 
live in wretched lodging houses, rather than to 
receive good wages and live in our homes ? What 



372 HOUSEKEEPING 

is there in this relationship of domestic service 
which the workers on their side so much dislike? 

Also, a maid feels the incongruity we have men- 
tioned between the family in which she lives and 
herself. A maid-of-all-work, especially, can hardly 
fail to be very lonely. The lack of fixed work hours 
in this service deprives the maid of personal liberty 
and of any protection from unreasonable demands. 
From morning till night and from night till morning 
she is at the mercy of the whims and temper of 
another woman. She knows that in this occupation 
she will be ranked lower socially than her acquain- 
tances who do not "live out." She knows, also, 
how little respect her work commands even from 
those who are benefited by it. Even the kindest 
of us sometimes say, **She looks like a cook,'' or, '*I 
feel as if I were dressed for the intelligence ofiice." 
If we speak like that of an occupation, is it surprising 
that women wish to avoid it ? 

It is not hard to deduce from the complaints made 
on both sides that the problem of domestic service 
is a problem of personal relationship. Its solution 
then depends upon the discovery of a possible and 
wise relation between mistress and maid, which it 
will become the general purpose to establish and 
preserve. 



SERVANTS 373 

At least two alternatives lie already before those 
who would discover this relationship. One is to 
recognize and endeavour to perfect the system of 
domestic service which has been for centuries in use; 
the other is to develop and establish a new system 
which lies as a possibility in the minds of many 
people and has been sporadically tried. For con- 
venience, I shall name these two and call the first, 
the patriarchal system, the second, the business 
system. 

The patriarchal system of domestic service has 
been in use some time. It probably began when the 
first woman brought the first man his food for love's 
sake. Then one day she was ill or the baby needed 
her and she asked some other woman to take it to 
him for the sake of neighbourliness. Then perhaps 
in a time of dearth it occured to an impoverished 
woman to serve another for the sake of food and 
clothes — and so it all began. 

Up to a very recent time servants were often 
permanent members of the household. The phrase 
"a family servant" and a very few representatives 
of the class are still with us. The relation between 
such servants and their masters and mistresses was 
a personal and moral one. At its best, the servant 
gave time, work, strength, loyalty and love, foi life; 



374 HOUSEKEEPING 

the master and mistress gave food, clothes, shelter, 
protection, nursing, affection and a home, for life. 

One cannot say how widely this ideal prevailed, 
but certainly it once existed in thought and fact as it 
does not now. Times have changed, have they not ? 
And changed so quickly that we hardly know just 
where we are in regard to servants. Servants on 
the one side, masters and mistresses on the other 
side, have dropped the responsibility out of their 
relationship and yet they fondly expect other things 
to remain unchanged. One woman complains that 
her servants are ''disrespectful," another that they 
are "ungrateful," another that "they do not care 
anything about her." Suppose a servant should 
suddenly turn and ask us, "Do you care anything 
about me.^ Do you know about my childhood .? 
Do you know how many brothers and sisters I have, 
and whether my father and mother are yet alive.? 
Do you know what things make me glad or gay, 
what interests or hopes I have.? If I am faithful 
to you, will you teach me and help me in my ignor- 
ance and my sins, and at last protect my helpless 
old age.?" 

If your cook should suddenly turn on you with 
these questions — on you, who own to having 
fifteen cooks in two months, or even on you who 



SERVANTS 375 

grieve because servants are not respectful, would 
not either of you discharge her at once and say you 
were *' never so insulted in your life?" 

And yet if the patriarchal system of domestic 
service is to work, we must be able to answer earn- 
estly," yes," to these questions, and the servant on her 
side must make the family life and interests her chief 
concern. She must be like "Black Lize" who lies 
buried at the feet of her mistress in a northern 
cemetery, and who told some of her people that she 
did not leave "the family" after the war as they had 
done, she "stayed, and put up with things." 

Or she must be like two Irish saints whom I know, 
devout women each consecrated to the service of 
a family. One hears their feet on the stairs at five 
in the morning going out to Church, and again going 
up to bed late at night after the last young mistress 
is undressed and comfortably at rest. They live 
here or there as others choose; they go out or stay 
in, sleep or stay awake, wait long or hurry madly 
as other people wish; they are the chosen com- 
panions of the ill, the sad and the difficult members 
of the family; they have given up their own family 
ties to share the fate of another family; they have 
no end in life except to serve. 

This patriarchal system asks a good deal of 



376 HOUSEKEEPING 

mere human creatures, does it not ? And one cannot 
say positively what the business system will ask 
because it has not been tried, but it seems probable 
that it would ask as much only in different ways. 

It is time, though, to consider what the require- 
ments of the business system might be, because many 
people think that domestic service will before long 
undergo some such change as has come over the 
professions of teaching and nursing in the last half- 
century. Any one who will read the novels of Miss 
Bronte and of Miss Austen, of Thackeray and of 
Dickens with special attention to the governesses 
and nurses they contain, is likely to feel surprise, 
however well he may know the histories of these 
professions. 

Particularly consider "Shirley" for governesses 
and ''Martin Chuzzlewit" for nurses and then 
picture the teachers and nurses of to-day, and 
it will not be hard to believe that in fifty years the 
profession of domestic service may also be so changed 
in status that no woman will feel it a social descent 
to employ herself therein. 

What will the relation between worker and 
employer be then, and what will be required of 
each ? 

The relation would doubtless be that of a business 



SERVANTS 377 

contract such as one has with a teacher, a typewriter 
or a nurse. The employer could not ask for respect, 
but for business courtesy; she could not expect 
gratitude, but rather skilled service for value received. 
Her responsibility for her employee would consist 
in paying her wages, in providing her with " sanitary 
surroundings," in requiring only a definite number 
of hours of work from her, and in regarding her 
with the same sort of human consideration which 
is used toward other wage earners. In all probability 
these things would be required of the housekeeper 
by law, as they are in greater or less degree required 
now of employers of labour. Women would have 
to know more about housekeeping than many do 
now, to be able to direct professional workers. They 
would have to give up using the word servant and 
the manner and feeling which sometimes go with 
it, or their employee would probably seek another 
position. 

The employee would not be a member of the 
household; she would usually sleep out of the house 
and come in for work hours, she would not take her 
meals with the family any more than she does now but 
it would be for the same reason that your husband's 
superintendent or secretary does not go out to lunch 
with him. She would expect the wages which were 



378 HOUSEKEEPING 

customary for her training and work hours. She 
would not be expected to have any especial attach- 
ment for her employers other than that arising from 
the fact that they fulfilled their business contracts 
and treated her courteously. She could not expect 
to have incompetency ignored, nor to learn her 
business from those who were paying her the wages 
of a skilled worker. 

Would you like these requirements any better than 
those of the patriarchal system.? 

These are just two sketches of the possibilities 
of an old system and of the probabilities of a new 
one. 

The problem, as you must personally meet it, 
unsolved, unclassified, little understood and a good 
deal discouraging is even now perhaps getting dinner 
in the kitchen. Probably the best plan for dealing 
with her at present is to use a little of both systems. 
It is wise to be very business-like about some things. 
"Days out," for instance, ought not to be interfered 
with except in case of family calamity. If the maid 
chooses to spend them at home, they should be as 
much hers as if she had gone out. Sanitary surround- 
ings are another thing. I hope that if I looked into 
your maids' room I should not see that there was 
no light, no heat, a double bed for two maids who 



SERVANTS 379 

are strangers to each other and the most meagre 
washing conveniences. It is useless to say that it 
is better than their homes, it is not their homes, 
it is your home. When an inspector goes to see about 
factory conditions, he does not say, "It's well enough, 
it's as good as their homes." i\.nother thing about 
which we should be business-like is the matter of 
hours. We should be as particular that our maids 
do not work sixteen hours as if we had a Trades' 
Union compelling us to be. A business-like point-of- 
view would also preserve us from despising a neces- 
sary and useful occupation. I have mentioned the 
careless way we speak of it sometimes, but what 
I think really matters more, is that some women 
would rather put up with lying, stealing, and immor- 
ality in a maid than take the risk of having to do her 
work. On the maid's "day out," likewise, some 
of us do as little of her work and do it as slightingly 
as we can, and she knows it. 

But we shall need the patriarchal method in dealing 
with maids personally. They are of many national- 
ities; they are untrained, untaught ; they have different 
customs, different manners, often different feelings 
from ourselves. We shall need much knowledge 
and human sympathy to understand them; much 
patience and quietness to teach them. We shall 



380 HOUSEKEEPING 

have to explain things which are new to them a 
great many times and very simply. We shall have 
to tell them definitely a few things which we require, 
and we must keep them and ourselves faithfully 
to these requirements. We must not lose our 
tempers with them because this lessens our authority, 
and besides, it is inexcusable to lose one's temper 
with a subordinate. We must not expect sympathy 
from them in the trouble they give us. We shall 
not get it any more than we would get such sympathy 
from children in school. 

It is sometimes a help over a puzzling place to 
remember that this work has a resemblance to the 
work of teaching. There is required of us the 
same willingness to wait long for results, the same 
patience with ignorance and clumsiness and defective- 
ness, the same quiet firmness toward carelessness 
and insolence. 

Many teachers have to begin to teach when they 
still know very little. They learn as they work, 
and so can housekeeper teachers. If the cook 
knows more about her work than you do, by all 
means learn from her and take her advice often, 
but do not allow her on this account to rule the 
household, or to decide about family arrangements 
which are not in her department. 



SERVANTS 381 

Do you know that letter of Saint Paul's written to 
his friend Philemon on behalf of a runaway slave. 
It is an irresistible letter. Such a mingling of loving 
confidence and insistent authority is hardly to be 
found elsewhere. And also, with a little thinking, 
a little putting together piece by piece, one gets 
a whole, vivid dramatic story from this letter. 

But its importance to us is that it is a letter written 
about a servant, and has more in it than people 
have yet been able to put into practice, though they 
have made a little progress in about nineteen hundred 
years. 



XVII 

MARTHA 

I BELIEVE that the chief reason that women 
find the work of housekeeping irksome and 
sometimes intolerable is a reason seldom given 
or reckoned with. The objections frequently raised, 
that women dislike the work because it ties them at 
home, because it takes all their time, because it tires 
them so that they can do nothing else, are obviously 
inadequate. 

For why should it not do all these things ? Law- 
yers, doctors and teachers give all their time and 
thought to their work; nurses, companions and 
secretaries do not have much time to go out ; women 
who stand behind counters, tend looms or sit at switch- 
boards are often too tired even for pleasure when the 
day's work is done. A woman who earns her part 
of the family living by making a home cannot 
expect to be delivered from toil. Is it likely 
that she can succeed in a difficult profession 
without giving up pleasures and ease for its sake, 
without working as hard and as unquestioningly 



MARTHA 383 

as the men of her family do for their part of the 
family support ? 

Some people say that we regard the profession of 
housekeeping unreasonably because women are by 
nature lazy, frivolous, and not capable of very much 
intellectually. Now, though I humbly acknowl- 
edge that these things may have to do with it, yet 
I believe, as was at first suggested, that there is a 
chief reason for the serious distaste we often feel 
for the profession. This reason is, that a certain 
reticence and effacement, which every one should 
exercise in regard to his work, is required of house- 
keepers in unusual measure. 

People who can think and talk of nothing but their 
own work and interests are very difl&cult people; 
a housekeeper who has this fault is not only difficult, 
she is dangerous. For women who make their house- 
keeping an idol pretty soon begin to offer it human 
sacrifice. 

I remember hearing, as a child, a woman say of 
another who was an immaculate housekeeper: " She 
swept her sons to the Devil." A puzzling saying to 
me then, a terrible one to me now, for it was true. 
Those sons were never allowed in the house till 
they had taken off their shoes ; they were not allowed 
in the yard because they made a litter. Naturally, 



384 HOUSEKEEPING 

they went to those places which opened to them most 
easily — the street, the saloon, the state's prison. 

This is an extreme case, but there are countless 
others, grading from those as serious as this to those 
in which homes just miss being comfortable on 
account of tiny, gnat-like annoyances. They are 
cases of failure in the woman's profession, and, 
trivial or great, they arise from the same cause, from 
the neglect of that thing we don't like about house- 
keeping — its unique characteristic — its effacement. 
Our work as housekeepers is only notable when it 
is not noticed. It must be done, delighted in and 
loved but seldom talked about and always held sub- 
servient to other ends. Housekeeping is the servant, 
silent and effaced, of peace, and home-likeness 
and health and joy, and of all that we call spiritual 
in those who form our households. 

And therefore, the housekeeper's life is full of little 
secrets; secrets of suffering and weariness, secrets of 
amusement and joy. But they are secrets which 
spoil her work if they are told. If one is a martyr, 
one must not tell about it. The saints who wore 
hair shirts did not cut a hole in the front of their 
clothes to show them. The woman who is always 
telling how much she has to do and how much she 
"has to put up with," has not stopped at cutting 



MARTHA 385 

a hole in her clothes, she wears her hair shirt on the 
outside to scratch other people with. Do you 
remember Mr. Pip's sister, in " Great Expectations," 
who constantly reminded the family that she never 
took her apron off ? 

It is natural in this connection to say a word about 
the care of the housewife's own health and cheerful- 
ness. Better even than to conceal weariness and 
depression is to have none to conceal. Some women 
are for years driven and spurred beyond reason by 
what we please ourselves with calling conscientious- 
ness or energy, but find at last that it was undis- 
ciplined ambition, or a stupid lack of system, or that 
we were blinded to the comfort and pleasure of 
other people by a determination to sacrifice ourselves. 

A woman who does her housework without assis- 
tance should expend some of her conscientiousness 
upon getting a rest. Fourteen hours is too long a 
work-day for any one. She must get it out of her 
mind that to rest is to acknowledge defeat and weak- 
ness ; far from it — it is such a difficult thing to do 
that she will probably have to learn how. Some 
people find that it rests them most to lie down and 
read a pleasant book; others can, or can teach them- 
selves, to sleep. Others, yet, find that to do nothing 
is like slipping the belt off the fly-wheel of an engine. 



386 HOUSEKEEPING 

their minds run the faster for having no work to 
hold them back. A remedy for this is just to say 
one's prayers — not prayers of asking, but prayers 
of realization, of companionship. 

There is also relief which should be accepted or 
secured for oneself as the work is being done. To 
change one's broom from side to side; to carry a pail 
first in one hand then in the other; to straighten one's 
body and fill one's lungs now and again when wash- 
ing or ironing or sewing; to spare one's hands and 
feet; to occupy the time spent in long tasks with 
pleasant thoughts — all these are things which 
help us to be well and glad and to keep the secret 
that we are sometimes tired and troubled. 

To return now to the other type of housekeeping 
secrets; it is less unsafe to share pleasant secrets than 
painful ones, but often even these are better kept. 
Unusual expedients, surprising shifts, the plan 
which pops into your head at dinner for using a 
left-over to-morrow are all better kept to oneself, 
or at least kept until the thing is so far past that only 
the funny side of it remains. The girl in Miss 
Austen's "A Nameless Nobleman," who basted her 
grandmother's bed-curtains and valance into a wed- 
ding dress and refused to tell where it had come from 
had woman wisdom. Her husband appreciated the 



MARTHA 387 

joke much more when, a few months later, he saw 
the same embroidery adorning his bed. 

We need to realize the dignity and usefulness 
of housekeeping; we must recognize that it is an 
active, clever employment in which there is much 
to learn, much to be found out; we may well regard 
it as a profession deserving our strength and time 

for life — and yet 

We must never be so absorbed in its importance 
or occupied with its affairs, that we cannot be quiet, 
and listen. For it may be that across many, many 
years we shall hear a voice saying lovingly and yet 

reprovingly: "Martha, Martha " Perhaps we 

may need to lie awake and question ourselves, as I 
think that other Martha must have done in the still 
night at Bethany. Why should earnest, careful 
service be unacceptable ? Why does a weary guest, 
who often has hardly the time to eat bread, care 
little for a feast .? Is there something more required 
of a woman than keeping her household warmed and 
fed, and something less required than notable success 
in her own work ? 

Doubtless that other Martha sobbed herself quiet 
at last over her failure and reproof, and then in the 
quietness remembered that in the guest chamber her 
Guest lay at rest. 



XVIII 

THE INSPIRATION 

INSPIRATION cannot be explained or described. 
I cannot tell you nor can you tell me what 
makes the long tasks of housework bearable 
and its service sweet. But I can tell you some things 
which come to me when I am weary and disheartened. 

There is a picture by Murillo, called "The Angels' 
Kitchen," of angels with wide wings folded, and 
star-eyes bent on the daily tasks of housewives. 

There is also Brother Lawrence, who had "a 
great aversion" to the work of the kitchen, but 
"accustomed himself to do everything there for the 
love of God," and so found "everything easy during 
fifteen years." 

When Lacordaire was asked why he thought it 
important to keep his tiny secluded room in spotless 
order, he replied, " The Holy Angels always see it." 

The words have been in the ears of the world for 
centuries, that He took upon Himself the form of a 

388 



THE INSPIRATION 389 

servant. Has it entered into our understandings 
yet, that to be a waitress or a butler or a cook or a 
nursemaid or to do the work of them all as a house- 
wife is to take upon ourselves a divine office and 
companionship. 

But it is just of three women that I oftenest think. 
One is that beggar-maid whom King Cophetua 
made his queen; another is Griselda whom Lord 
Walter chose from rags and penury and grievous 
toil to be his wife; and the last, the outcast, beheld 
by the Prophet Ezekiel, of marred beauty and defiled 
garments, yet chosen for love's sake to be a bride 
adorned and honoured. 

Their stories are our stories. We are each one of 
us both servant and queen; we are each one of us 
somewhat unlovely, somewhat unable and yet exalted. 
And in the servant's heart is always the radiant 
secret, "I am the queen"; and in the queen's heart 
is always the rememberance, "These lowly tasks 
belong to me by right." 

Doubtless at last when the tasks are done, comes 
the fulfilment of that vision with which this book 
began, when the Potter's work will be finished, 
earth's wheel still, and the clay cup moulded and 
filled to refresh the lips of the Master who made it. 



jUl 8 t9n 



\ 



ELECTRICITY AND 
ITS EVERYDAY USES 






)pfEEDLEcnAp. 



)ME DECORATl 

iarpentS 

IDWOODWdl 






OUTDOOR SP^^S 



'^, 






ail^»^^CHANlcS , 
^ORS AND Olff) 



'\ 



i»* 



!*> 



■iiS? 



